








































































THE DISAPPEARANCE 
OF KIMBALL WEBB 


v 


THE DISAPPEARANCE 
OF KIMBALL WEBB 


BY 


ROWLAND WRIGHT 

'WjJUU, 



NEW YORK 

DODD, MEAD AND COMPANY 
1920 




Copyright, 1919 

By DODD, MEAD AND COMPANY, Ino. 








VAIL -BALLOU COMPANY 

MMOHAMTON AMO MEW YORK 


Tn.v-a ?.ia-2>i. 


I 


CONTENTS 

CHAPTER PAGE 

I A Mysterious Disappearance ... 1 

II Henrietta Telephones 15 

III Elsie Suspects 31 

IV Aunt Elizabeth’s Will 47 

V Elsie Makes Inquiries 64 

VI A Haunted Room 81 

VII Joe Allison 98 

VIII Courtney’s Talk 115 

IX Gerty’s Plea 132 

X Coley Coe 148 

XI Sleeping Dogs 165 

XII Coe’s Conclusions 182 

XIII The Expected Letter 199 

XIV An Easy Mark 216 

XV In Uniform 233 

XVI A Safe Man 250 

XVII Gilded Acorns 267 

XVIII Elsie’s Birthday 284 



THE DISAPPEARANCE 
OF KIMBALL WEBB 













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THE DISAPPEARANCE OF 
KIMBALL WEBB 


CHAPTER I 

A MYSTERIOUS DISAPPEARANCE 

K IMBALL WEBB didn’t look at all like a 
man who would disappear mysteriously. 
Though I’m not sure mysteriously disappearing 
men, as a class, have physical characteristics in 
common. But one rather imagines them eerie 
looking, with deep, cavernous eyes and hollow 
cheeks. 

Kimball Webb had nothing of the sort. He 
was a bit distinguished looking, but that was be- 
cause he was a New Englander by birth, and a 
playwright by profession and had won the D. 
S. C. in the late war. Now, though a lame knee 
interfered slightly with his outdoor pursuits, his 
mind was alert and eager to return to work and 
his brain was fairly bursting with new ideas for 
his plays. First, however, he must needs attend 
to a certain business of getting married. A de- 
lightful business it seemed to Webb, for Elsie 
Powell was as lovely and desirable in the flesh 
as she had looked to him when seen in his trou- 
bled dreams in far off France. 


i 


2 The Disappearance of Kimball Webb 

There is a lot to be said about Elsie, but that 
properly comes in the next chapter. 

Mrs. Webb and Miss Henrietta Webb sat at 
their pleasant breakfast table, and while they 
wait for the son and brother, I’ll describe 
them. 

Every detail of their appearance and manner 
shrieked Boston, — so you don’t need much more 
surface description. A mental interior view 
would show hearts devotedly, even absurdly, fond 
of Kimball Webb, and minds which reasoned 
against showing fully that devotion. 

The New England repression of feeling is not 
effaced by life in New York; indeed, the circum- 
stance often accentuates the trait. 

And the Webbs lived in New York. This con- 
dition crucified the souls of both women but they 
came cheerfully, because it was Kimball’s wish. 
He felt his dramatic talent was of a wing-spread 
too wide for the narrow opportunities of his na- 
tive town, and there were other lures in the 
metropolis, especially Elsie. 

So, with a smile on their lips but tears in 
their eyes, his mother and sister left the shadow 
of their State House dome, and set up their house- 
hold gods in an old but comfortable house in the 
East Sixties, not far from Park Avenue. It was 
on Park Avenue that Elsie lived. 

. Webb’s love of all beautiful things,— espe- 
cially Elsie, — had led him to have the back yard 


A Mysterious Disappearance 3 

of their home fixed up like an old patio or close 
or some such doings, and had scattered over its 
paved area, benches, statues, lions and other more 
or less damaged stoneware, picked up from cer- 
tain worthwhile dealers in antiques. 

So it was on this picturesque outlook the din- 
ing room windows opened, and the house being on 
•the south side of the street, the morning sun 
added cheer to the already pleasant breakfast 
scene. 

“ Kimball is late this morning/’ said Miss 
Webb, naturally, though unnecessarily. 

“ Small wonder,” returned her mother. “ I 
happen to know that he was up till all hours at 
his dinner party.” 

“ What a foolish idea, having a bachelor din- 
ner the night before one is married. I should 
think he’d prefer a good night’s rest to fit him 
for the responsibilities of the ceremony.” 

“ Few responsibilities devolve on Kimball’s 
shoulders. The best man looks after everything, 
I’m told.” 

“ And Fenn Whiting can do that. He is the 
most capable man I ever saw, when it comes to 
social matters of any sort. But I’m a little sur- 
prised at his consenting to be best man. You 
know he worships Elsie.” 

“ I know. He tried to cut Kim out.” 

“ And I wish he had ! I shall never be recon- 
ciled to Kim’s marrying that girl — ” 


4 The Disappearance of Kimball Webb 

“ Rather late now to raise objections, Hen- 
rietta.^ 

“ As if I hadn’t been raising them right along 
from the day I first heard the outrageous news ! ” 

“ Yes, and what good did it do? ” 

“ None. But I’ve put myself on record as 
against the marriage.” 

“ You certainly have ! And now, do hold your 
tongue about it ; I think I shall send Hollis up to 
Kimball’s room — ” 

“ Oh, let the poor boy alone. The wedding 
isn’t until four o’clock, and he may as well sleep 
late if he wants to. What time did he get in? ” 

“ It was after two. He looked in to say good- 
night to me. He had the pendant with him.” 

“ He did? I thought he was to give it to Elsie 
yesterday.” 

“ He was. But she was afraid to keep it in 
her possession over night, — they have no safe.” 

“ Neither have we.” 

“Well, anyway, she asked Kimball to keep it 
for her till today. He wanted me to put it in 
my jewel box, but I said no. I didn’t want the 
responsibility of such a valuable thing.” 

“ It is perfectly stunning. It’s wicked, I 
think, for Kim to put so much money in 
diamonds.” 

“ It never was done in our family,” Mrs. Webb 
sighed. “ But the Powells, of course, have dif- 
ferent standards.” 


A Mysterious Disappearance 5 

“ Shall we go on and eat our breakfast? ” 

“ I hate to, on Kim’s last day under this roof. 
I shall send up and at least find out if he is still 
asleep.” 

Hollis, the butler and general factotum of the 
establishment, was dispatched on the errand. 

When Hollis returned, though his face showed 
amazement and doubt, there was no sign of fear, 
but rather a suppressed smile and an indulgent 
twinkle of his eye. 

“ Mr. Kimball is very sound asleep, ma’am,” 
he reported to his mistress. “ Will you not leave 
him lay for awhile? ” 

“ You are implying,” said Mrs. Webb, astutely, 
“ that Mr. Kimball was at a gay party last night. 
He spoke with me on his return, and I can 
assure you, Hollis, that he had not been over- 
celebrating in any way.” 

The butler looked chagrined, then relieved, 
then puzzled. 

“ In that case, ma’am, w T hy does he sleep so 
very soundly? I rapped as loud as I could, and 
also shook at the door-knob. And then, I lis- 
tened at the keyhole, but I could hear no deep 
breathing, as of a sound sleeper.” 

“ I will go up myself,” said Kimball Webb’s 
mother, and the man held the door open for her 
to pass through. 

“ It is very strange,” said Henrietta, with a 
covert glance at the butler. 


6 The Disappearance of Kimball Webb 

“ Yes, Miss Webb,” and the man looked at her 
until she fidgeted. 

“ Leave the room,” she ordered, sharply, and 
he obeyed. 

“ There’s something wrong, Henrietta,” her 
mother deelared, as she came hastily back. 
“ I’ve called and called, and pleaded with him to 
let me in, but he won’t.” 

“ Did he reply at all? ” 

“No; not a sound. I should think he was up 
and out early, about some business, but that his 
door is locked.” 

“ He always locks it at night.” 

“ Of course. And last night, as he had the 
diamonds in his keeping, I daresay he fastened 
the door with extra care.” 

“ Oh, mother, perhaps somebody has murdered 
him and stolen the diamonds ! ” 

Henrietta was always outspoken, and the re- 
sult of this speech was a hysterical scream from 
the elder lady, that brought Hollis to the scene 
again, followed by the cook and a housemaid. 

Leaving her mother to the attentions of the 
women servants, Henrietta spoke to the butler. 

“ Mr. Kimball’s room must be opened,” she 
said; “ can you do it, Hollis? ” 

“ Not alone, Miss Henrietta. Shall I get the 
chauffeur? ” 

“ Yes, and quickly. Meantime I’m going up- 


A Mysterious Disappearance 7 

stairs myself. Come up as soon as you can get 
Oscar.” 

Slowly Henrietta Webb mounted the two 
flights of stairs to her brother's room. A 
strange, thoughtful look was on her handsome 
face. 

Not a young woman was Miss Webb, indeed 
she was three years older than Kimball, who was 
thirty. But she was what is known as well- 
preserved, and every detail of her perfect groom- 
ing spoke of a determination to look her best at 
any expense of time, trouble or money. 

A tradition in the Webb family was that 
“ haste ” is a word unknown to a lady. It may 
have been the observance of this that caused the 
lagging footsteps, but to an onlooker it would 
have appeared that Henrietta Webb was thinking 
with a rapidity in inverse proportion to her 
movements. 

At Kimball’s door, the door from the hall into 
the front room on the third floor, she paused, and 
stood looking at it with a sort of fascination. 
What lay behind it? Tragedy? — or merely the 
comedy of over sleeping? 

“ If it should be ! ” she murmured, in an irre- 
pressible whisper, and her hands clinched into 
one another, as if in expression of some strong 
emotion. 

u Can’t you rouse him, Miss Webb? ” asked 


8 The Disappearance of Kimball Webb 

Hollis, solicitously, as he and the chauffeur came 
upstairs two or three steps at a bound. 

“I — I haven’t tried,” said Henrietta, dully. 
“ I — I’m afraid — ” 

“ Now, now, Miss Webb,” Oscar, the chauffeur, 
put in cheerily, “ I’ll bet he’s all right. Anyway, 
we’ll soon see.” 

The mechanician quickly picked the lock, but a 
firm bolt still held the door closed. 

“ Have to smash in,” he exclaimed ; “ no other 
way.” 

The door was heavy and solid, as doors of old 
New York houses are, but after a few futile at- 
tempts, the two men burst the bolt from its fas- 
tenings and threw the door open. 

Kimball Webb was not in the room. 

The three, crowding through the doorway, took 
in this fact without, at first, grasping its full 
significance. 

Then, “ The bathroom,” said Henrietta, and 
Oscar, who was more alert than the butler, flung 
open the bathroom door. 

When the Webbs took the old house, they re- 
modelled it slightly to suit their needs. On this 
third floor, there had been a joint lavatory and 
dressing room between two large bedrooms. 
This had been changed to make it a private bath 
connected only with Kimball’s room, and having 
no outlet elsewhere. The room behind it was 
used as a family sitting-room or library, and 


A Mysterious Disappearance 9 

there were no other rooms on the floor. What 
might have been hall bedrooms were alcoves in 
the two rooms. 

Therefore, when Oscar entered the bathroom, 
and found no one in it, the situation resolved 
itself into the simple fact that Kimball Webb 
had disappeared from a room that had but one 
exit door, and that had been found locked and 
bolted. 

Oscar turned white and shook, Hollis turned 
red and shivered, but Miss Webb preserved her 
colour and her poise. It was not remarkable 
that her colour remained stationary, she had ap- 
plied it with that intention, but her unshattered 
nerves bespoke a marvellous self-control. 

“ Where is he?” she said, and her voice be- 
trayed her agitation, though she strove to control 
it. 

“ Where can he be, miss? ” exclaimed Oscar. 
“ I never saw the like ! He must have jumped 
out of a window.” 

“ He couldn’t,” said Henrietta, briefly ; 
“ they’re all fastened.” 

The two men, unfamiliar with these details, 
examined the windows. 

There were three of them, facing front, on the 
street. Each was opened at the top for the space 
of about six inches, and was securely held thus 
by a patent device that proved to be very firm 
and strong. The small window of the bathroom 


10 The Disappearance of Kimball Webb 

opened on a narrow airshaft, but this window 
was closed and fastened. 

Clearly, there was no outlet but the main door 
into the hall. 

Closets and wardrobes were thrown open and 
examined, Oscar even looked under the bed and 
behind the heavy window curtains, but there was 
no sign of Kimball Webb. 

“ I never saw anything so queer ! ” exclaimed 
Henrietta, who had not yet thought of tragedy 
in connection with her brother’s absence. “ I 
should think he has risen early and gone on some 
errand, — only how could he have gotten out? ” 

Hollis merely stared in response to her 
inquiry. 

“ He couldn’t, ma’am,” declared Oscar. “ No- 
body could go out of this room, and leave that 
door bolted behind him. And it was locked on 
the inside, too, you know. I turned the key 
from the other side, with strong pincers.” 

Henrietta stared at him blankly. 

“ Where, then,” she said, “ is my brother? ” 

“ I don’t know, I’m sure, miss,” Oscar began, 
and then Mrs. Webb reached the top of the stairs, 
and joined the astounded group. 

After her, trailed the cook and the housemaid, 
joined as they passed the second floor, by the 
chambermaid, so that there was a goodly com- 
pany of startled and excited people to discuss the 
amazing circumstance. 


A Mysterious Disappearance 11 

The servants, however, said little, save a few 
scared whispers among themselves, for though 
the lady of the house was often lenient, yet they 
well knew that no emergency or unusual occur- 
rence was sufficient excuse in Miss Henrietta’s 
eyes, for any breach of strict adherence to 
orders. 

“ Where’s Kimball, Henrietta? ” demanded 
Mrs. Webb, as if her daughter were entirely re- 
sponsible for her brother’s keeping. 

“ I don’t know, mother ; it’s the queerest thing ! 
He’s gone off somewhere, and yet, he left the door 
locked behind him.” 

“ I can understand that,” and Mrs. Webb 
looked superiorly informed. “ He had — that 
is, there was, something of value — ” 

“ Oh, yes, I know he had Elsie’s wedding gift 
here, — but the question is, how did he get out? 
The door was locked when we came up here.” 

“ He locked it himself, Etta. What ails you? ” 
“ Listen here, Mrs. Webb,” broke in Oscar, a 
little forgetful of his etiquette in his excitement. 
“ We found the door locked on the inside, — 
bolted, too, — we broke in, — so you see it’s most 
mysterious, ma’am.” 

“ Broke in ! How dared you? ” 
u Hr sh, mother, I told them to,” interrupted 
Henrietta; “there’s something strange, — inex- 
plicable, — impossible, even ! What shall we 
do?” 


12 The Disappearance of Kimball Webb 

“What is there to do, but wait for Kim to 
come back and explain matters? ” 

“ How can he come back? How did he get 
out? How — ” 

“ Don't be foolish, Henrietta. However he got 
out, he can certainly come back. I’ve not the 
slightest doubt he’s over at Elsie’s.” 

“ At nine o’clock in the morning ! ” 

“ It’s half after now, — nearly ten. He must 
be over there, for where else would he go, — on his 
wedding day? Why don’t you telephone Elsie, 
and inquire? ” 

“ Oh, mother, you are talking rubbish ! Try 
to see things more clearly. Kimball’s gone, 
and — he’s mysteriously gone ! ” 

“ Pooh, people don’t go mysteriously nowa- 
days. Kim’s all right; he’ll turn up soon, and 
have a good laugh at you.” 

“ Very well then, how did he leave this room, 
and lock the door behind him, on the inside, 
leaving the key on in the lock ? ” 

“ On the inside? ” 

“ Yes, on the inside, and bolted as well.” 

“ I don’t know, my dear, how he did it, — but 
Kimball can do anything ! ” 

And with this comprehensive statement of her 
trust in her son’s omnipotence, the elder lady 
went downstairs again. 

“ My mother doesn’t take it all in,” said Miss 
Webb to Oscar, who was rapidly assuming the 


A Mysterious Disappearance 13 

position of right hand man. “ We must do 
something, I think ; can you suggest anything? ” 

She looked at the young chauffeur with an air 
of command, whereupon he felt the immediate 
necessity of suggesting something, — however 
absurd. 

“ Shall I call the police, ma’am? ” he said. 

“ No ! ” she cried. “ What an idea ! Of course 
not. My brother has not absconded ! ” 

“ But we ought, by rights, to do something,” 
Oscar went on. 

“ There’s nothing to do,” Henrietta returned, 
evidently dissuaded from all action by the men- 
tion of the police. 

“ If I might look around the room a bit, miss? ” 
Oscar ventured. 

Henrietta nodded, and the alert youth started 
on a tour of investigation. 

“ Don’t touch nothin’,” Hollis growled. He 
stood, with stern eyes glaring at the eager 
searcher. 

“ Why not? ” 

“ It’s against the law — ” 

“ Oh, Hollis,” and Miss Webb frowned at him. 
“ This is not a criminal case ! ” 

“ How do you know it ain’t, Miss Webb? ” 

Ignoring him, Henrietta watched the other. 

Without touching anything, Oscar made a very 
intelligent and quick search of conditions. 

“ Where’s his clothes? ” he demanded. “ You 


14 The Disappearance of Kimball Webb 

see, he’d been to bed, — yet his night things are 
gone, and I don’t see the day clothes he took off. 
What was he wearing last night, ma’am? ” 

“ Evening dress. He gave his bachelor dinner, 
you know. Didn’t you drive him to the club? ” 
“ Yes, ma’am, but I didn't bring him home. 
He said for me not to go for him, he’d come home 
with some of his friends.” 

“ Well, he had on his customary evening 
clothes. Are they not in liis clothes closet?” 

But they were not. Henrietta looked dum- 
founded. It had become evident to her, at last, 
that there was a mystery connected with her 
brother’s absence. And today was his wedding 
day ! Ah, he must be over at Elsie’s. No matter 
how contradictory the facts, no matter if he was 
wearing evening clothes in the morning, there 
must be a rational explanation, — if only for the 
reason that there was certainly no irrational one ! 
“ Do let’s do something, miss ! ” urged Oscar. 
Henrietta turned now to the butler as the man 
of better judgment. 

“ What do you think, Hollis? ” 

“ I don’t know what to think, Miss Henrietta. 
There’s nothing possible to think. But I agree, 
something ought to be done. Suppose you tele- 
phone to Mr. Whiting.” 

“ The very thing ! Mr. Whiting is most 
capable and efficient. And too, he’s to be my 
brother’s best man. I’ll call him up at once.” 
And Henrietta ran downstairs to telephone. 


CHAPTER II 


HENRIETTA TELEPHONES 

S HE made an impressive picture, as she swept 
the telephone from its little table, even while 
she sank into the attendant chair. For Hen- 
rietta Webb was a striking-looking woman, — 
only her Bostonian restraint kept her from being 
a stunning one. Tall, but very graceful, mus- 
cular, yet strictly feminine, her demeanor was 
marked by a calm composure, that was absolutely 
unshakable. 

“ Mistress of herself, though china fall, ,, would 
be a true but an inadequate comment on Miss 
Webb’s self-control. She ruled herself, as she 
did all with whom she came in contact; she 
dominated every phase and circumstance of her 
life and that of the household. This domination 
of others was not obtrusive, was not always even 
evident, but it showed itself upon occasion. 

One person, however, her brother Kimball, 
Miss Webb could not always rule. Though in 
many ways, and up to a certain point, he was a 
veritable mush of concession, yet there came a 
moment, not infrequently, when he calmly but 
very decidedly put her in her place. To do 
Henrietta justice, she took these moments ration- 
ally, bowed to his will, and set herself about 
achieving her desired end by other means. 

15 


16 The Disappearance of Kimball Webb 

And rarely, perhaps never, did she fail of 
achieving her desired ends. 

Personally, Miss Webl) was the type of woman 
that is adjudged beautiful by some people while 
others say, “ I can’t see how you can possibly 
call her good-looking ! ” 

She had great grey eyes, with dark — well, 
say, darkened lashes. She would have had grey 
hair, but she preferred dark brown, — and had it. 
A faint pink flush showed, usually, on her smooth 
cheeks, and her firm, beautifully shaped lips were 
a lovely red. 

Now, don’t run away with the impression that 
Henrietta was awfully made-up and artificial 
looking. She was nothing of the sort. All her 
aids to Nature were so skilfully achieved and so 
natural of effect that he who ran might read them 
as nature’s own. It would be only one who 
would peep and botanize who would discover 
the truth, and even he might not. 

Miss Webb’s exquisitely proportioned figure, 
too, owed something but not all to the art of her 
corsetiere and modiste. But her own good judg- 
ment and perfect taste kept them from overdoing 
anything, and the result came pretty near to be- 
ing a perfect woman, nobly planned. And with 
the plans nobly carried out. 

Her face, per se, was fine, aristocratic, and 
Bostonian of cast; so now you can get a pretty 
fair idea of Miss Henrietta Webb’s appearance. 


Henrietta Telephones IT 

She had long arms, long fingers, long legs, and — 
if it interests you at all • — long toes. She was 
that sort, you know, and those long limbs and 
digital extremities fairly shout a psychic nature. 
Which she had. 

Her voice was charming. It had that inde- 
scribable, inimitable timbre , — that only New 
England birth bestows; and those wonderful in- 
flections never inborn save in Massachusetts. 

This voice and these inflections now sounded 
over the telephone, like the sound of a grand 
Hello ! 

For Miss Webb was too truly correct, too in- 
nately proper to descend to the silly subterfuges 
of “Yes?” or “What is it?” affected by the 
would-be refined. 

But her “ Hello,” with her inflection, was like 
the benediction that follows after prayer,; — or 
like the harmonious echo of this discordant life. 

“ Hello ! ” returned Fenn Whiting, in his 
cheery way. “ How are you? How’s old 
Kimmy? ” 

“ Can you come up here right away? ” asked 
Miss Webb, and catching the serious note in her 
voice, Whiting replied, “ Why, yes ; in a few 
minutes. What’s up?” 

“ I don’t want to talk over the telephone,” she 
informed him, “ but do get here as soon as you 
possibly can.” 

She hung up the receiver, which was her effi- 


18 The Disappearance of Kimball Webb 

cacious way of decreeing the conversation at an 
end. 

“ Mother/’ she said, rising, “ we may as well 
eat our breakfast. Thank Heaven we’re not the 
sort of people who fly into hysterics. I admit if 
I were that sort I should certainly do so, though, 
for this mystery is baffling me. I feel my brain 
reel when I try to think it out! Whatever the 
explanation of Kimball’s absence, no power on 
earth can explain how he got out of his room.” 

“ There are other powers than those of earth, 
Henrietta,” Mrs. Webb began, solemnly. 

“ There now,” spoke up her daughter, with 
some asperity, “ don’t begin that jargon ! You’ll 
be saying next that spirits carried Kim off ! ” 

“ Can you suggest anything more believable? ” 

“ I can’t think of anything more unbelievable ! 
I’d rather think he went up the chimney or oozed 
through the keyhole than any supernatural fool- 
ishness ! ” 

“ Simply a choice of foolishnesses, then,” ob- 
served Mrs. Webb, calmly, and she took her seat 
at the table and asked for hot muffins and fresh 
coffee. 

“ Where is the diamond pendant? ” said Hen- 
rietta, suddenly. 

“ Gracious ! I don’t know. It must be in 
Kim’s room, somewhere. You’d better hunt it 
out before anybody more goes searching around. 
Didn’t you say Oscar showed some curiosity? ” 


Henrietta Telephones 19 

“ Not exactly that; he searched with a sort of 
detective instinct, a systematic investigation to 
Kim’s clothes and that sort of thing.” 

“All the same, Henrietta, I think the jewels 
should be secured. When Kim returns he won’t 
like it much if they have been stolen.” 

“ Very well, I’ll hunt for the pendant as soon 
as I finish breakfast.” 

But as they rose from the table Fenn Whiting 
arrived and the story was told to him. 

His face showed wonderment, even incredulity, 
and he had no sort of explanation to suggest. 

“ The only thing I can think of,” he said, “ is 
that somebody has played a practical joke on 
Kimmy. You know we- were pretty gay at 
dinner, last night, and there was a lot of guying 
of the prospective bridegroom. It was fun, be- 
cause Kim is such an old sober-sides and so mat- 
ter-of-fact, that — ” 

“ He’s nothing of the sort,” contradicted Hen- 
rietta; “Kimball has the finest sense of 
humour — ” 

“ Oh, that, yes ! Doesn’t he write high-class 
comedies? But I mean he has no liking for per- 
sonal badinage, no relish for practical jokes — ” 

“ The kind of fun knowm as horse-plav, I sup- 
pose you mean,” Henrietta observed, scathingly. 

“ Well, yes, Miss Webb, I suppose that’s just 
about what I do mean. Anyway, there was a 
lot of fooling last night that didn’t appeal 


20 The Disappearance of Kimball Webb 

strongly to our host, and though he behaved 
beautifully under fire, he couldn’t help showing 
his distaste for some of the speeches.” 

“ Well,” said Henrietta, impatiently, “ what 
sort of a joke, and perpetrated by whom, would 
explain my brother’s present absence, and dis- 
close his hiding-place? ” 

“ Oh, Lord ! I don’t know ! I don’t know that 
any such thing happened, — I only caught at 
that as a possible way to turn.” 

“ Let’s turn that way, then,” and Henrietta 
looked at Whiting with an air of awaiting further 
instructions. 

“ I’m willing, Miss Webb ; I’ll do anything I 
can to help you, — but what shall we do? Are 
you sure Kimball isn’t in the house? ” 

“ I’m not sure of anything ! I only know he 
is not in evidence ; that his bed was slept in, but 
that he has disappeared, — and, disappeared, 
leaving his room locked on the inside.” 

“ What ! impossible ! How did he get out? ” 

“ That’s the mystery. Oh, Mr. Whiting, think 
of the situation ! Today is his wedding day — ” 
“ Well, I ought to know that! I’m best man.” 
“ Of course you are. But you can’t be best 
man without a bridegroom ! ” 

“ He’ll turn up, of course. But it is queer ! 
Who can be responsible for the performance? ” 

“ Can you guess? Who, of all the men there 
last night would be the most likely ones? ” 


Henrietta Telephones 


21 


“ Nothing like that happened, Mr. Whiting,” 
broke in Mrs. Webb, who till now had silently 
listened ; “ Kimball couldn’t have been tricked 
out of that room. A human being can’t leave a 
locked room by human means. He was super- 
naturally removed. I am a believer in Spiritism, 
I know all about its manifestations and I am 
sure my son was levitated — ” 

“ Levitated? What does that mean, Mrs. 
Webb? ” the puzzled visitor inquired. 

“ It is a well-known term among psychists. 
People have been levitated, while in an uncon- 
scious state, from one house to another, — simply 
wafted through the air — ” 

“ Oh, rubbish ! I beg your pardon, Mrs. Webb, 
but — do you really believe that? ” 

“ Of course I do — ” 

“Hush, mother;” Henrietta reproved her; 
“ those fads of yours are inopportune at this mo- 
ment. She is a believer in all Spiritism, Mr. 
Whiting, but this is not the time for such sug- 
gestions. Do you know it is eleven o’clock? 
Something must be done! And oughtn’t we to 
let Elsie know what has happened? She has a 
right to be told.” 

“ Who will tell her? ” asked Whiting, looking 
troubled. 

Remembering his own hopeless admiration for 
the girl, Henrietta readily understood his disin- 
clination to carry her the disturbing news. 


22 The Disappearance of Kimball Webb 

“ I’ll go and tell her,” she said, at last. “ But 
you, Mr. Whiting, must do something toward 
finding Kimball. The cruel person who would 
do such a thing as to hide away a man on his 
wedding day is no less than a criminal. Only a 
wicked mind could conceive of such a deed ! ” 

“ Perhaps he went of his own accord? ” 

“ I truly hope so ; then he’ll come back soon. 
But we must take no chances. Leave no stone 
unturned to find out what has happened. Tell 
me frankly, what men at the dinner would you 
think capable of such an exhibition of cruelty and 
bad taste? ” 

“ I hesitate to say ; I can’t think any of them 
would be. Oh, don’t take my whilom suggestion 
as a fact! I can’t believe it myself. But — 
what else? ” 

“ There is no other. And even that’s an im- 
possible solution, remembering the locked door ! ” 

“ If you leave out the question of the locked 
door,” said Mrs. Webb, “ then I should suspect a 
burglar, who came to steal the diamond pendant.” 

“ Is that missing? ” asked Whiting, looking 
shocked. 

“ We don’t know,” said Henrietta. “ Kimball 
had it last night, he showed it to mother after he 
came home — ” 

“ He had it at the dinner,” vouchsafed Whit- 
ing; “he showed it to us all. Oh, he wasn’t 
parading it, — he chanced to have it in his 


Henrietta Telephones 


23 


pocket, and Wally Courtney, I think it was, asked 
to see it. Courtney’s a gem fancier, I believe. 
Well, we all looked at it with interest. It’s a 
great little old jewel, you know ! ” 

“ Yes,” agreed Miss Webb, “ I never saw finer 
stones ; and the four of them, so perfectly 
matched, yet of graduated sizes, make a wonder- 
ful pendant. As they hang, below one another, 
they look like dripping water.” 

“ An exquisite gift,” said Whiting. “ Have 
you searched for it thoroughly? ” 

“ Haven’t looked at all,” declared Henrietta. 
“ You see, it would take a careful search. For if 
Kimball hid it from possible thieves, he hid it 
very securely, I’ve no doubt.” 

“ Under his pillow, maybe? ” 

“ Oh, I don’t think so. Put I’ll look every- 
where. Just now, I’m more anxious to find my 
brother than his diamonds.” 

“ I don’t blame you. Now, to be practical, 
suppose I name over all the guests of last night’s 
dinner, and let’s see if we can fasten suspicion on 
any one of them.” 

But listing the guests meant nothing to Hen- 
rietta. The ones she knew, she was certain 
would do nothing of the sort ; and the ones with 
whom she was unacquainted, she could not, of 
course, judge. 

Whiting, also, couldn’t bring himself to accuse 
anybody. The greatest jokers, even buffoons, 


24 The Disappearance of Kimball Webb 

present, were, as a rule, the most kind-hearted 
chaps, and quite incapable of so distressing a 
prospective bridegroom. 

“ It can’t be that ! ” he said, at last. “ I’ve 
rounded them all up in my mind. I’d rather 
adopt Mrs. Webb’s theory than to suspect any of 
those jolly, good-natured fellows ! Every one is 
a friend of Kimmy’s, and though they were 
hilarious, they were nothing more, and we all 
parted in kindliest feeling.” 

“ You said some of them annoyed Kimball.” 

“ Oh, hardly annoyed ; embarrassed him a 
little, perhaps. But I’ve been to dozens of 
bachelor dinners, and I can assure you old Kim 
was let off pretty easily last night. Most of them 
respected his dislike for overintimate chaff.” 

“ I’m glad they did ! It’s a horrid thing.” 
Miss Webb looked disdainful. “ But the time 
is simply melting away! What shall we do? 
Oh, Mr. Whiting, do help us, — or, if you can’t, 
suggest somebody who can ! ” 

“ Honest, Miss Webb, I feel helpless. I am 
distressed, beyond all words, — but I don’t seem 
to be able to think of anything to help. 
I brought Kim home ; there were four of us in my 
car, and he was the first to get out. That was 
near two, I should say. Then I took Courtney 
home, and then Harbison and then went home 
myself. Honest, I can’t suspect any of those 


25 


Henrietta Telephones 

men. As to the others, I know nothing of what 
they did. We separated as we left the Club, and 
I’ve not seen anybody this morning. Shall I go 
up and give Kim’s room the once over? I might 
find a clue — or something.” 

“ I hate that word ‘ clue ! ’ It always seems to 
connote a crime ! ” 

“ Oh, not necessarily. Anyway, I can’t see 
any crime in this case, but I confess it’s mysteri- 
ous beyond anything I ever heard of.” 

“ Go up, if you like, Mr. Whiting. But I can’t 
see any use in it. Kim’s room is exactly as it 
ought to be, there’s nothing upset or out of place. 
Only, — we had to break in to get in at all ! ” 

“ He must have left the room by some other 
door, then.” 

“ There is no other door.” 

“ Window? ” 

“ All fastened with special catches. But, do 
go up, Mr. Whiting, you might chance on some- 
thing that I overlooked. Hollis will show you 
the way. Now, I’m going to Elsie’s. It isn’t 
right not to tell her.” 

“ Shall I go, Henrietta? ” Mrs. Webb asked, 
docilely. 

“ No, mother. I’d rather go alone. I’ll take 
the little car. Hollis, tell Oscar to bring it at 
once, and then do you take Mr. Whiting up to Mr. 
Kimball’s room.” 


26 The Disappearance of Kimball Webb 

With her usual quiet efficiency, Henrietta set 
the wheels moving, and was ready, dressed for 
the street, when the car arrived. 

She rode the few blocks down Park Avenue 
that brought her to Elsie Powell's home, in a 
deep study. 

She was marshalling and formulating her 
thoughts. Possessed of great mental concentra- 
tion, she had her mind in order, so far as her 
knowledge allowed, when she reached her des- 
tination. 

The Powells’ apartment was one of the fine 
modern ones that cost more than a house and are 
also more livable. The large rooms, light, airy 
and attractive, were furnished in the best of 
taste, though of a very different type from the 
Webb home. Everything was light, bright and 
pleasing to the eye. But Miss Webb scorned the 
lack of all that she deemed desirable ; old mahog- 
any, family portraits and heirlooms. 

There wasn’t a “ Treasure Table ” to be seen, 
and the window curtains were suspiciously spick 
and span. 

Newness was a crime in the Webb calendar, 
and Kimball’s choice of a wife was a very sharp 
thorn in the patrician sides of his mother and 
sister. 

Yet few could find fault with the girl 
who came running into the room to greet Hen- 
rietta. 


Henrietta Telephones 


27 


“ Oh, my dear,” cried the lovely little voice, 
“ I’ve just had the most wonderful gift from your 
cousin, — Kimball’s cousin, Mrs. Saltonstall! 
It’s a set of old china, — a whole set ! and really 
old ! Do come and look at it ! ” 

Henrietta couldn’t help gazing kindly at the 
speaker. The shining eyes, the soft pink cheeks, 
the smiling, curved lips, — even if the old china 
was wasted on this chit of a girl, she was a very 
engaging chit. 

Dark curls, stuffed into a tiptilted, rosebudded 
lace cap ; dainty slender white throat rising from 
a hastily tied together negligee; fluttering little 
pinky hands and dancing feet, all were part of 
the gladsome whole that was Elsie Powell. 
Happy enthusiasm, childish glee, were combined 
with a touch of wistful shyness that always at- 
tacked her in the presence of her critical sister- 
in-law to be. 

But so gravely did Miss Webb look at her, that 
Elsie intuitively felt something unusual. 

“ What is it?” she cried. “ Henrietta, what 
is it? ” 

The big, brown eyes were full of a frightened 
premonition, the red lips quivered, and the little 
butterfly hands clasped themselves in trembling 
fear. 

For Henrietta Webb had a speaking face, and 
Elsie Powell was by no means dull or unobserv- 
ant. 


28 The Disappearance of Kimball Webb 

“ Where is Kimball? ” Miss Webb said, first of 
all. 

“ Why, I don’t know, I’m sure,” replied the 
girl. “ I saw him last night,” — she blushed di- 
vinely, — “ he was on his way to his dinner, — at 
the Club, you know. Of course I haven’t seen 
him since.” 

“ Nor heard from him? ” 

“ No; and that’s queer, too; for he told me, — ” 
the blush deepened, “ that he would telephone me 
this morning the moment he woke up, — to greet 
me on my wedding-day. Oh, — nothing has hap- 
pened — tell me ! ” 

“ Oh, probably nothing to worry about, my 
dear. But, — well, we don’t know where Kim- 
ball is.” 

u Didn’t he come home from the dinner? ” 
The brown eyes wondered. 

“ Yes ; and spoke to mother, and then went to 
bed. At least, we assume so. But this morning, 
he is gone, and — we had to break open the door 
to get into his room ! ” 

“ But,” Elsie smiled, ^ how could he get out 
and leave the door locked? ” 

“ That’s just it ! That’s the queer part ! ” 

“ Queer? It’s impossible! ” 

“ Impossible or not, he did it ! Or, that is to 
say, all we know is that he’s missing, and he dis- 
appeared, leaving the room securely fastened.” 

“ I don’t understand.” Elsie became suddenly 


Henrietta Telephones 


29 


very grave and sat down beside her guest. 
“ How can what you tell me be true? ” 

“ I can give no explanation, — I simply state 
the facts.” 

Henrietta Webb looked coldly at the girl now ; 
perhaps because Elsie was looking very sternly 
at her. 

“ May I ask, — would you mind — stating them 
again? ” 

Patiently, Miss Webb repeated what she had 
told, and amplified it until she had described 
the entire episode of entering her brother’s room 
by force. She told, too, of calling Fenn Whit- 
ing, and of his suggestion of a practical joke. 

“ Not at all,” said Elsie, decidedly. Her 
cheeks showed a redder flush, her eyes were very 
bright, and though she repressed it, she was 
trembling with excitement. 

“ May I call my mother? ” she said, at last, in 
firm, even tones. “ Will you tell this to her? ” 

She left the room and returned immediately 
wdth her mother. 

Mrs. Powell was an invalid, and had been for 
years. But her bright eyes and strong, fine face 
told of an indomitable will and a capable per- 
sonality. 

Again Miss Webb told her story. She liked 
none of the Powells, and though she concealed 
this, yet there was no magnetism in her manner,. 
— no sympathy in her voice. 


30 The Disappearance of Kimball Webb 

She told a straightforward tale, precisely as 
she had told it to Elsie. She did not soften the 
facts, she held out no hope or encouragement; 
she talked with a peculiar effect of giving statis- 
tics, as a conscientious reporter might do. 

At the close of the recital, Mrs. Powell 
promptly went to pieces. She always did this on 
exciting occasions. 

“ Try not to, mother,’ 7 was Elsie’s softly spoken 
advice, and then she turned to Miss Webb. 

“ You cannot deceive me,” she said, quietly, but 
with flashing eyes ; “ I do not believe a word of 
your story! You have hidden Kimball some- 
where so that he cannot marry me today ! You 
are desperately opposed to our marriage, and you 
have resorted to desperate means to prevent it! 
Your invention of the locked room business is too 
silly for words, and you must think me an utter 
idiot if you think I would swallow such non- 
sense. You have made no secret of your oppo- 
sition to me, you have tried every way possible 
to break off the match, and, failing, you have 
taken matters into your own hands and you have 
done this despicable thing! You have hidden or 
confined your brother, — what have you done with 
him ? ” 


CHAPTER III 


ELSIE SUSPECTS 

‘ \ FTER such an exhibition of foolishness, one 
JT\_ could scarcely wonder that I can’t look 
upon you as a desirable mate for my talented 
brother, — but I am willing to make allowances 
for your display of temper, as I can readily un- 
derstand how embarrassed you must be at the 
awkwardness of having no wedding — ” 

Henrietta Webb paused as she saw the look 
that came over Elsie’s face. 

“ Don’t you propose to let him out in time to 
get married?” the girl cried. “ Oh, Henrietta, 
how can you be so cruel? I know you’ve done 
this thing, — Kimball couldn’t disappear! Nor 
would he go away of his own accord. But you’ve 
had something up your sleeve for a long time, — 
I saw that you had, — only I never dreamed it 
was anything so heartless, so awful as to stop 
the wedding at the last minute ! Why, it’s after 
twelve, — and the people will begin to go to the 
church soon after three. Please, Henrietta, own 
up now! Give him up! You know you can’t 
prevent the wedding, — you can only postpone it ; 
and think of the trouble you’ll make ! ” 

“ Be quiet, Elsie,” said Miss Webb, a little 
alarmed at the girl’s excitement. “ Tell her 
she’s all wrong, Mrs. Powell, won’t you?” 

31 


32 The Disappearance of Kimball Webb 

“ I’m not sure she is,” said the dazed mother. 
“ I can’t take it all in, — but it seems to me Elsie 
has hit on the only possible explanation of Kim- 
ball’s disappearance.” 

“ What are you people talking about? ” in- 
quired a newcomer, and Elsie’s sister came into 
the room. 

Gerty Seaman, widowed by the war and left 
with two tiny children, was one of those helpless, 
appealing women, who, haying no self-reliance, 
lean upon any one who chances to be near. 

“ What is the matter? Where is your brother, 
Miss Webb? Tell me everything, — I refuse to 
be kept in the dark ! ” 

But after hearing all there was to be told, 
Gerty took a light view of the situation. 

“ Nonsense, Elsie,” she said, “ of course Miss 
Webb has nothing to do with it! It’s a joke of 
some of those horrid men ! Some people love to 
do such things. They’ve kidnapped him for fun, 
and they’ll let him loose in time for the ceremony, 
but not much before.” 

“ I can’t think that,” said Henrietta, musing ; 
“ I don’t know all of Kimball’s friends, but those 
I do know are far above any such uncouth jests 
as that.” 

“ What do you think, then?” asked Elsie, 
sharply. 

“ I’d rather not say what I think.” 

“ Oh. Well, what does your mother think? ” 


33 


Elsie Suspects 

“ You know my mother’s hobby, — spiritual- 
ism. She thinks Kimball has been spirited away 
by supernatural powers.” 

“ What rubbish ! ” exclaimed Gerty. “ But 
there’s small use in guessing at the truth. Some- 
thing has happened, — I suppose there’s no 
chance that he has turned up at home since you 
left? ” 

“ I told Hollis to telephone me here in that 
case.” 

“ Well,” and Gerty spoke briskly, “ we must 
take steps to postpone the wedding — ” 

“ I won’t ! ” declared Elsie, “ at least, not yet. 
Wait, Gerty, till the last possible minute for 
that!” 

“ I think it is the last minute now, dear. Or 
shall we wait till one o’clock? ” 

“ Two,” said Elsie, thinking hard. “ Give me 
till two to find him. I’m going over to the 
Webbs’ now. Will you take me over, Henri- 
etta? ” 

“ Come on,” said Miss Webb, briefly, and Elsie 
ran to get ready. 

“ You mustn^t blame the child — ” began Mrs. 
Powell. 

“ I don’t,” said Henrietta, justly enough. 
“ She is in a fearful position, — I don’t resent her 
saying to me what she did, — she’s really irre- 
sponsible.” 

“ But what can be the explanation?” urged 


34 The Disappearance of Kimball Webb 

Gerty. “You needn’t imply that Kimball has 
hidden himself purposely, for I know that isn’t 
so. He is desperately in love with Elsie, — des- 
perately — ” 

“ Of course he is,” said Elsie, coolly, as she re- 
turned, ready for the street. “ Come along, Hen- 
rietta.” 

Not a word was spoken between the two 
women as they rode to the Webb house. 

Inquiringly, Elsie looked at Mrs. Webb, who 
was in the drawing room, distractedly pacing up 
and down. 

Her greeting was not affectionate ; indeed, El- 
sie seemed to detect a shade of relief in the elder 
woman’s face, a satisfaction, she quickly thought, 
that the wedding could not take place. 

“ Where is he? ” she cried, but Mrs. Webb only 
shook her head, and Elsie felt herself dismissed. 

“ Where is he? ” she repeated; “ I have a right 
to ask! I am his promised wife, — his bride! 
Where is my bridegroom? ” 

“ Gone! ” said Mrs. Webb, in a vague, faraway 
tone. “ Gone for ever, Elsie.” 

“ Oh, fiddlesticks ! That he isn’t ! I’m going 
up to his room, — I want to see how he did get 
out.” 

She ran up the stairs, and found Fenn Whit- 
ing in the sitting room back of Kimball’s room. 

“ Oh, Fenn,” cried Elsie, “ I’m so glad you’re 
here! What does it all mean? ” 


Elsie Suspects 


35 


“ There’s no explanation, Elsie ; I’m crazy with 
trying to think it out.” 

“ Is it a joke by some of the men? ” 

“ That’s one notion, — but an absurd one, I 
think. And, anyway, it all comes back to this. 
Whatever the reason of his disappearance, what- 
ever the cause, how was it accomplished? You 
see yourself,” they had now reached the door of 
Kimball’s room, “ there’s no way out of this 
room but by this hall door, and that was locked 
on the inside.” 

“ So they say! ” 

“ Oh, it was. The servants say so, and look at 
this broken lock. Yes, that’s a true bill. You 
mustn’t suspect the Webbs, Elsie; it won’t do.” 

“ I’ll suspect anybody you can suggest, if 
there’s the slightest reason.” 

“ That’s just it, — I can’t suggest anybody. 
But what are you going to do? You must de- 
cide — ” 

“ First, I want to look around the room. 
Here’s his watch on the chiffonier — ” 

“ They say he went to bed, and then got up 
again. All the clothes he had on last evening 
are missing and his night things, too.” 

Elsie stared. 

“ Shoes and all? ” she said. 

“ I don’t know as to that. I suppose so. 
Hollis said, all his clothes.” 

“ You’ve talked with Hollis? ” 


36 The Disappearance of Kimball Webb 

“ Oh, yes. But, Elsie, no talking with any- 
body amounts to anything! What does it mat- 
ter whether Kim’s shoes are here or missing? 
The thing is, how did he get out of this room, 
shoes or no shoes? ” 

“ But everything connected with the matter is 
important,” persisted Elsie. “ It may be a clue, 
you know.” 

“ Oh, clues ! Well, hunt clues all you like, but 
remember, the hour for the wedding is not so very 
far away, and you must say what I am to do. 
As best man, it’s up to me to help all I can, but 
as the bride, it’s for you to dictate.” 

“ Fenn, how can I? How could anybody know 
what to do? ” 

The girl was pathetic in her distress. Her 
lovely face white and drawn with a fear, — all the 
more awful that she knew not fear of what ! 

Truly a strange situation ! Her wedding hour 
approaching, and no possibility of the wedding 
ceremony being performed, unless by some means 
her lover should be restored to her. 

Mechanically, almost unconsciously, she 
leaned down and with her fingertips brushed at 
some white marks on the plain moss-green carpet. 

“ What’s that? ” asked Whiting. 

“ I don’t know. Chalk, it looks like.” 

“ Oh, Elsie, dear, please don’t worry about 
1 clues ’ and such things just now. Listen to me. 
We must make some plans to follow if Kim 


Elsie Suspects 


37 


doesn’t show up in time. If he does, there’s no 
harm done; but for the sake of your own dig- 
nity do think what you’ll do if he isn’t here at 
four o’clock. And before that! We ought to 
call in the invitations, — at once. You can’t 
have people coming to the church and going 
away again ! ” 

“ I don’t care what they do ! ” she cried, pas- 
sionately. “ Oh, Kimball, I want you ! ” 

She flung herself into a chair and gave way to 
tears at last. 

Mrs. Webb and Henrietta came in, and seeing 
them, Elsie controlled herself. 

“ You have succeeded, Henrietta,” she said 
with a scathing look ; “ you were determined I 
should not marry Kimball, and you have suc- 
ceeded in — postponing it, — that’s all ! The 
wedding will yet take place! You can’t keep 
him hidden for ever ! ” 

“ Elsie ! What nonsense ! ” exclaimed Whit- 
ing. “ You know Miss Webb couldn’t have done 
this thing ! ” 

“ Never mind that,” said Henrietta, hurriedly, 
“ I don’t mind her raving. But I think she must 
notify the guests that they must not come. It is 
getting late, and, you see, if — if Kimball should 
return, they can be married just the same, 
but — ” 

“ But you know he will not return ! ” Elsie 
stormed at her. “ You think you can calm me 


38 The Disappearance of Kimball Webb 

by saying such things, but you know he ccm’t re- 
turn until you let him ! ” 

Miss Webb smiled, as with kindly indulgence 
of a disordered mind, and said, gently, 

“ For your own sake, Elsie, meet the situation 
as well as you can.” 

“ It isn’t Henrietta’s doing,” put in Mrs. Webb, 
solemnly, “ I understand it all ; I know — ” 

“ Never mind, Mrs. Webb,” Elsie stood up sud- 
denly ; “ I’ll hear your theories some other time. 
As Henrietta says, for my own sake, I must do 
the best I can. I will, too. I’ve decided. I 
shall give myself till two o’clock, — it’s half-past 
one now, and if Kimball hasn’t appeared by that 
time, I shall telephone to my dearest friends; I 
shall ask you, Henrietta, to telephone to your 
people, — those you can reach. Fenn will look 
after the ushers and the church matters, — and, 
— I must go home now, I’ve a lot to do.” 

Her hearers were not surprised at this change 
of demeanour. Elsie’s nature was mercurial. 
Quick of decision and of action, she had sensed 
her position and had risen to the emergency. 
She would have time afterward for emotion, for 
investigation, for sorrow even, but now there was 
much to be done. 

“ Will you send me home? ” she asked of Hen- 
rietta, who nodded. “ Come with me, Fenn,” she 
went on, “ and, if you please, Henrietta, I want 
this room fastened against all comers. I must 


39 


Elsie Suspects 

insist upon this; I have some rights, I am sure. 
See to it that nobody enters until after I come 
again.” 

Miss Webb looked a little rebellious at this dic- 
tation, but, fearing to rouse the girl’s anger, she 
promised. 

“ That is, unless Kim comes home,” she said, 
but Elsie only gazed at her with an accusing 
eye. 

Alone with Elsie in the little electric 
brougham, Whiting made a suggestion. 

“ You know,” he began with diffidence, “ my 
own feelings for you, Elsie, — oh, don’t be fright- 
ened,” he added quickly, as she turned startled 
eyes on him. “ I’m not going to shock you, only 
I must — I must say, if you want me to, — if you 
would let me, — I — ” 

“ You’d take Kim’s place as bridegroom, — is 
that it? ” 

“ Yes, — oh, yes ! ” 

“ Well, thank you lots, and I know you mean it 
in the kindest way, but it won’t do.” 

“ Don’t be offended, anyway, Elsie, — it seemed 
a — a way out for you.” 

“ Yes, I know; it would be. But not a way I 
can take. Forgive me, Fenn, I’m not ungrateful 
for the kind part of your offer, but, oh, — we’ve 
had all this out before ! ” 

“ I know it, dear, and I won’t refer to it again. 
But just remember, if you do want to go on with 


40 The Disappearance of Kimball Webb 

the ceremony, there’s a bridegroom ready for 
you.” 

Elsie smiled. “ I don’t feel wildly hilarious,” 
she said, and, of a truth she was on the verge of 
hysterical tears, “ but — your speech was funny, 
Fenn ! ” 

“ It wasn’t meant to be,” he rejoined, stoutly ; 
“ and I stand by it, — no matter how much you 
laugh at me.” 

“ Thank you,” she said, more seriously, and 
then they got out at her home. 

“ Oscar,” she stopped to speak to the chauf- 
feur, “ you went into Mr. Webb’s room first this 
morning? ” 

“ Yes, ma’am ; me and Hollis.” 

“ Did you notice anything, — anything at all, 
that seemed queer or strange? ” 

“ No, ma’am; except for Mr. Kimball’s ab- 
sence and the fact that his clothes were gone, — 
all of which you know about; there was nothing 
else strange.” 

“ I didn’t suppose there was anything, but I 
wanted to make sure,” and Elsie sighed. 

“ Yes’m ; indeed, I wish I could help you, miss. 
There was a bit of a smell of bananas, — but I 
don’t suppose that would mean anything? ” 

“ No,” and Elsie smiled in spite of her misery. 

Whiting followed her into the house. He as- 
sumed a protective air which she did not resent ; 
it was good to have somebody to rely on. 


41 


Elsie Suspects 

Elsie lost no time in perfecting her plans. 

Rapidly she made lists of the most important 
guests, those to be notified first. 

“ We can’t tell half the people,” she said, in 
despair. “ They’ll have to go to the church and 
go away again. Oh, I wish now I hadn’t decided 
on a church wedding! It would have been easier 
at the house. Well, I shall have the minister 
come here anyway, and then if Kim comes at the 
last minute, — or later, even, — we can be mar- 
ried here. Fenn, we’ll wait till two o’clock, — 
or shall we say half-past? ” 

She looked so wistful that Gerty cried, “ Oh, 
do wait till three ! ” 

“ No,” Elsie decided, “ half-past two, and not a 
second later. Then, as we’ve only one telephone, 
and I shall use that, you take this list, Gerty, 
and go out somewhere, into some other apart- 
ment, I mean, and rattle them off. Mother, you 
take this, and do the same. Fenn, here’s yours. 
You see, I’ve listed the necessary names; if you 
think of others, follow up with them. We can’t 
head off the caterers, but they needn’t send the 
waiters ” 

“ My dear child,” said her mother, “ don’t think 
of those things! I’ll see to the caterer’s people.” 

“ All right, mother, — oh, poppet, you do look 
so sweet ! ” 

This last was spoken to Elsie’s niece and god- 
child, who ran in just then, partly dressed in 


42 The Disappearance of Kimball Webb 

her wedding finery. She was to be flower-girl, 
and never tired of practising her role. 

The sight of the baby figure, dancing about — 
upset Elsie entirely, and Gerty rose quickly and 
carried her daughter away. 

“ Now,” Elsie, resumed, with a glance at the 
clock, “ the Webbs must tell their own friends 
and relatives. You go and telephone Henrietta 
now, Fenn, that she must begin at half-past two 
to notify them that there will be no wedding.” 

The finality of this made Elsie’s voice quiver, 
but she went on bravely. 

“ I’m pretty sure Kim will turn up at the last 
minute, — I think he’ll break loose, whoever’s 
holding him — ” 

“ What makes you think he’s held, Elsie? ” 
asked Gerty, curiously. 

“ What else could keep him? ” and Elsie looked 
her wonderment. 

“ Lots of things. Suppose he went some- 
where, — he must have gone somewhere, you 
know, — and met with a fearful accident. He 
may be in some hospital, — ” 

“ By Jove, that’s so!” interrupted Whiting. 
“ Shall I round ’em up, Elsie? That would make 
a heap better case than — mysterious disappear- 
ance.” 

“ I don’t know,” Elsie hesitated. “ Yes, Fenn, 
if there’s time, do that. But I’ll go right on 
planning our immediate schedule. I must do 


Elsie Suspects 


43 


it, — it will save all sorts of awkwardness.” 

Whiting attacked the list of hospitals, and the 
others waited on Elsie’s will. Both Gerty and 
Mrs. Powell adored Elsie, and as they were at 
their own wits’ end, they were only too willing to 
be guided by her ideas. 

“ Perhaps he had a stroke or something, and 
lost his mind and climbed out of a window,” sug- 
gested Gerty, who was unable to keep from sur- 
mising. 

“ He couldn’t,” said Elsie, shortly. “ His 
game knee wouldn’t let him get out of a window, 
— and his are on the third story, and they were 
all closed, except for a few inches at the top.” 

“ Well, maybe he squeezed through, and in- 
jured himself so, that they took him to a hos- 
pital.” 

“ Who took him, Gerty ! What are you talk- 
ing about! I never heard such nonsense.” El- 
sie returned to her lists. “ I shall dress,” she 
said, looking up ; “I must be ready if Kimball 
comes, — ” 

“ Oh, don’t! ” cried her mother; “ I’m sure it 
would be unlucky to dress for your wedding and 
not be married after all ! ” 

, “ Unlucky ! ” said Elsie, with a sad little smile. 
“ I don’t think I could very well be more un- 
lucky than I am!” 

“ Don’t put on your wedding gown,” urged 
Gerty. “ Put on a simple little white frock, 


44 The Disappearance of Kimball Webb 

and then, if Kim comes, be married in that.” 

“ Yes ; that’s what I’ll do,” agreed the poor lit- 
tle bride, her big, brown eyes sombre with sadness, 
and despair. “ And I’ll dress now, for at half- 
past two, I take the telephone. After all,” she 
tried to speak cheerfully, “ it’s no crime to post- 
pone a wedding. It is unusual, it’s unfortunate, 
but nobody can blame me.” 

“ Blame you, you poor darling, I should think 
not ! ” cried her mother, who was bearing up 
bravely for her child’s sake. 

“ I wish you had kept the diamonds,” Gerty 
said, ruminatively. 

“ Oh, what a speech ! Gert, you are the most 
mercenary thing I ever knew ! ” Elsie scowled at 
her sister. “ The idea of thinking of such a mat- 
ter at this time ! ” 

“ Well, you may as well have had them. 
They’re yours, by right.” 

“ I don’t want them, — without Kim ! I’m 
glad I didn’t keep them, it would have been one 
more thing for Henrietta to sneer at.” 

“ How she hates you.” 

“No; she doesn’t hate me. Only she never 
thought I was of good enough family to marry 
into theirs.” 

“ I’m sure the Powells are all right,” said Mrs. 
Powell, plaintively ; “ and as for my own fam- 

iiy— ” 

“ It doesn’t matter, mother, what or who we 


45 


Elsie Suspects 

are. We’re not Bostonians, and that settles us 
for Henrietta Webb ! It’s her fetich, that Massa- 
chusetts blood of hers! Kimball laughs at her 
fanaticism. You know his new play is a satire 
on that subject.” 

“ Is his play finished? ” asked Gerty. 

“No; only about three-quarters done. He ex- 
pects to do up the rest quickly, — after our honey- 
moon.” 

Elsie couldn’t make herself quite realize that 
her honeymoon was probably destined not to 
occur, — at least, at present. 

She went away to dress, and was so expeditious 
that she returned just as Whiting came from the 
library where he had been telephoning the hos- 
pitals. “Nothing doing,” he reported; “oh, El- 
sie, how sweet you look ! ” 

In a dainty white house dress, with her lovely 
hair simply tucked up in a curly mass, and no or- 
naments of any sort, Elsie was exquisitely lovely. 
Her face was pale, but there was a dear, sweet ex- 
pression that went straight to Fenn Whiting’s 
heart. He had loved her a long time, and it was 
in no way his fault that Kimball Webb had won 
her. 

“ Almost two-thirty,” he said, tearing his 
glance away from her dear face. 

“ Yes,” said Elsie, and with a tense, drawn ex- 
pression, she sat watching the clock. 

No one spoke. It was an awful moment, and 


46 The Disappearance of Kimball Webb 

yet each realized there was no choice but to do as 
Elsie had decreed. 

“ Don’t act as if it was a funeral ! ” Gerty burst 
out at last, unable to hold the tension longer. 

“ I’m not ! ” declared Elsie, indignantly ; “ and 
it’s nothing of the sort! I’m just as sure that 
Kimball will come back to me as — as any- 
thing ! ” she finished, a little lamely. 

“ If he only comes in time ! ” wailed Gerty. 

“ He can’t,” said Whiting; “it’s half-past two 
now.” 

“ I don’t mean in time for that! ” Gerty said, 
and Elsie gave her a look of scorn that made her 
blush, and fairly shrivel beneath her sister’s 
glance of displeasure. 

“ It is half -past,” Elsie agreed, and rose, giving 
herself a little shake, as if disciplining an unwill- 
ing child, and went straight to the telephone. 

“ Every man to his post ! ” her clear voice rang 
out, and, obediently her mother and sister went 
out with their lists. 

Whiting delayed a moment. 

“ Are you sure, dear, — ” he began, but Elsie, 
the receiver in her hand, was already calling her 
maid of honour’s number. 


CHAPTER IV 


AUNT ELIZABETH’S WILL 

M RS. POWELL soon returned, utterly un- 
able to do her part in the awful task* of 
telling people not to come to the wedding. 
Their exclamations and questions were too much 
for her. She went to her room, suffering from 
a severe attack of nervous exhaustion. 

Gerty Seaman, who like Elsie, had strong pow- 
ers of endurance and ability to meet emergency, 
stuck to her post until all on her list had been 
spoken to and had promised to tell others. 

It was a big undertaking to get word to the 
larger part of the expected assembly, but it was 
fairly well accomplished. Of course, many peo- 
ple did go to the church, and were informed that 
there would be no wedding there that day. The 
Webbs, mother and daughter, were equally busy 
in the matter, but with them there was a secret 
undercurrent of satisfaction, not admitted, even 
to themselves, but there all the same. 

The mystery of Kimball’s disappearance was 
yet to be looked into, but whatever might be re- 
vealed regarding that, at least he was not to 
marry Elsie Powell today. 

The Webbs were honest in their disapproval of 
47 


48 The Disappearance of Kimball Webb 

the match. They had really nothing against El- 
sie or her family save that it was not, in their 
estimation, in the same class with their own. 
And, too, they didn’t approve of great wealth. 
A moderate income seemed to them more in keep- 
ing with high standards and fine traditions than 
millions. 

“ Of course,” opined Henrietta, “ she will 
marry some one else, if Kim — ” 

“ Of course,” returned her mother. “ By 
June, there will be no further danger, I’m sure.” 

The Webbs had decided not to state, over the 
telephone, what was the reason for the recalling 
of the invitations. It seemed to them more de- 
corous merely to say there would be no ceremony, 
and let the people find out why for themselves. 
Intimate friends were given a hint, but others 
received only formal announcements, mostly 
from the Webb servants. 

“ Of course,” Mrs. Webb said, to her daughter, 
“ Kim saw the truth at last. He realized how 
undesirable it was that he should marry Elsie, 
and he chose this way of getting out of it. Not 
a very commendable way but I, for one, don’t 
blame the poor boy.” 

“ You wouldn’t blame him if he had chosen to 
kill Elsie, as a way to escape marrying her,” Hen- 
rietta returned, smiling grimly. 

“ Nothing could make me blame my son,” and 
Mrs. Webb complacently folded her hands. 


Aunt Elizabeth’s Will 


49 


“ But, if we have guessed the truth, Kim ought 
to let us know soon where he really is.” 

“ That’s the queer part,” mused Miss Webb. 
“ Wherever he is, how did he lock his door after 
him?” 

The afternoon dragged away, and the evening 
passed, somehow. 

There was no further communication between 
the two houses ; it had been agreed that if either 
family heard any news of the missing bridegroom 
they would at once notify the others. 

Fenn Whiting went back and forth from one 
house to the other several times. He, as best 
man, was alertly ready to do anything, in any 
way bearing on the matter. He was in posses- 
sion of the wedding ring, the tickets for the pro- 
jected honeymoon trip, luggage checks, and all 
such details of a best man’s duties. Whiting’s 
all-around efficiency and his general capability 
made him a valuable assistant to a bridegroom, 
and Kimball Webb had entrusted everything to 
him. 

“ You’d better take the ring, Elsie, and keep 
it,” Whiting said to her, in the evening. “ I’ll 
try to redeem the tickets, and I’ll cancel the res- 
ervations as far as I can. Understand, I’m per- 
fectly sure Kim will turn up soon, but there’s no 
use holding staterooms and hotel rooms. You 
see, if the boy has met with some accident, — and 


50 The Disappearance of Kimball Webb 

to my mind that’s more plausible than a joke, 
— it may be a day or so before we hear from him, 
that is, assuming — oh, hang it all ! It’s so mys- 
terious there’s no assuming anything ! What do 
you want me to tell the reporters? ” 

“ Tell them the truth ! ” Elsie replied ; “ there’s 
no sense in holding anything back. And full de- 
tails may help to find him. I have no fear that 
Kim has deserted me, — that’s too ridiculous, — 
though Henrietta Webb does more than hint at 
it ! No, Fenn, Kimball is as true to me as a mag- 
net to the pole ; I don’t care who knows the whole 
story. Kim has done nothing wrong. A wrong 
has been done to him.” 

So all the strange details were given to the 
press, and next morning’s papers were full of the 
story of the mysterious disappearance of Kimball 
Webb on his wedding day. 

Though not a celebrity, Webb was fairly well 
known as a playwright. He had had one or two 
real successes before he went to the war, and 
since his return had been busy on a new play, 
that was to be his masterpiece. 

High comedy, founded on satire, was his field, 
and the new play was pronounced a wonder by all 
who had heard its plot and plan. A member of 
the Workers’, and of a fraternizing nature, he 
often talked over his play at the Club with other 
members engaged in the same occupation. 

He had laid aside his work for a fortnight’s 


Aunt Elizabeth’s Will 


51 


honeymoon, but both he and Elsie were too anx- 
ious for the completion of the play in time for 
late summer production, to devote more time to 
idleness, and they expected to spend the summer 
in a mountain resort not too far from New York 
where Webb could work. 

Webb was a forceful man, tall, well built, and 
with a strong, fine face. Athletics were his 
hobby, but an injury to his knee while in France, 
was not yet entirely healed. He, limped very 
slightly, and would eventually entirely recover, 
but at present was debarred from active physical 
effort. 

Of the gentle, rather easy-going nature, Webb 
was an Indian when roused. Even Elsie de- 
clared if she ever really deserved his wrath she 
should run away from him, — nothing would in- 
duce her to face him when angry! But, on the 
other hand, the man was so just in his dealings 
and so tolerant in his opinions that only right- 
eous indignation would ever move him to punish 
an offender. 

For the rest, Kimball Webb was merry, light- 
hearted, kindly, and if careless of social obliga- 
tions and indifferent to acquaintances, he was a 
staunch friend and an ideal lover. 

All the poetry of his nature was brought out in 
his love for Elsie Powell, and the girl was en- 
thralled, and sometimes bewildered at the depth 
and sincerity of his expressions of devotion. 


52 The Disappearance of Kimball Webb 

And she was worthy of it all. Notwithstanding 
Henrietta Webb’s disparagement, Elsie Powell 
was a desirable mate for any true hearted man. 
Not clever in Kimball’s way, she was a strong, 
true-hearted woman, and her faithfulness and 
loyalty quite equalled Kimball’s own. Moreover 
they were exceedingly congenial, enjoyed the 
same things, and liked the same people. 

And Elsie was capable of appreciating Webb’s 
talent, and interested herself in his plays with an 
understanding that surpassed that of Henrietta 
herself. 

Had it not been for Kimball Webb, Elsie would 
doubtless have married Fenn Whiting. For the 
latter had great charm and his passion for Elsie 
was a matter of long standing. Though a few 
years older than Webb, he was of a vital energy 
that defied age and made him seem far younger 
than he was. But when Elsie made her choice, 
Whiting stepped back and proved his manliness 
by a cheerful acceptance of the inevitable. 

When Webb asked him to be best man, he hesi- 
tated but a moment and then agreed to do so. 

And now, in the mysterious emergency that 
had come upon them all, Whiting was endeavour- 
ing to do whatever he could and whatever Elsie 
wished him to do, to be of any possible help or 
comfort. 

“ I think,” Mrs. Powell said, as the evening 
wore on, “ we’ll send Elsie to bed now. You’ve 


Aunt Elizabeth’s Will 


53 


been a good friend, Fenn ; I don’t know what we 
should have done without you. Now, what are 
we going to do next? ” 

“What is there to do?” spoke up Gerty. 
“We can do nothing but wait for Kimball to re- 
turn, — and for my part I don’t believe he ever 
will. I think there’s more to this thing than a 
disappearance, — I think you’ll find there’s been 
a crime — ” 

“ Oh, hush, Gert ! ” wailed Elsie. “ I’ve been 
afraid somebody would say that! I won’t think 
of it ! Anyway, not tonight ! And it isn’t true ! 
It can’t be true ! ” 

On the verge of a breakdown, after her trying 
day, Elsie ran out of the room, and her mother 
followed, bidding Whiting a brief good night as 
she passed him. 

Left alone with Gerty Seaman, Whiting asked 
if she had any errand he might do for her, and 
then he proposed to say good night. 

“ No,” said Gerty, “ there’s nothing more to 
be done tonight, I should say, — but, oh, Fenn, 
what do you think of it all? ” 

“ What is there to think, Gerty? Every one of 
us knows as much as the next one about it, — 
and who among us can suggest even a possible 
explanation? ” 

“Nobody can, — and yet, Fenn, there must be 
an explanation. I mean, — Kimball did get out 
of his room — ” 


54 The Disappearance of Kimball Webb 

“ Of his own volition, — of course, Gerty . 
How he managed to lock the door behind him is, 
to be sure, an enormous mystery, but not so great 
a one as to imagine that any one else did it! 
Why, that idea of a practical joke won’t hold 
water a minute.” 

“ I thought it was your theory.” 

“ Only until I figured it out. How on earth 
could anybody abduct Kim, take him from his 
room unwillingly, and depart, bolting the door 
behind them? It couldn’t be done. Kim’s fas- 
tening the door behind himself is a puzzle, but an 
easier one, it seems to me, than for an outsider 
to do it. Kim could get downstairs and out, un- 
observed, if alone, but not if he was being kid- 
napped by a jocularly inclined comrade! ” 

“ I don’t see it that way,” Gerty said, thought- 
fully. “ I think the mystery of the locked door 
is a thing by itself, and in no way affected by or 
dependent upon other circumstances. However, 
it doesn’t matter much. Will the police take a 
hand? ” 

“ Yes. I happen to know they are to be at the 
Webb house this evening. I’m going there now. 
Oh, Kimmy will be found, of course. Never 
doubt that ! ” 

“ But — but, you know about the will, Fenn, 
— do you suppose he’ll be found by Elsie’s birth- 
day? ” 

“ When is that, exactly? ” 


Aunt Elizabeth’s Will 


55 


“ The thirtieth of June.” 

“ And it’s now the sixth of April. Nearly 
three months! I should say so! If he isn’t 
found in that time, he never will be ! ” 

“ And — what then? ” 

“What then? Oh, you mean about Elsie’s 
money. I know there’s some tie-up there, but I 
don’t know just what it is. Her old aunt’s freak- 
ishness, wasn’t it? ” 

“ Yes ; Aunt Elizabeth Powell, — Elsie is 
named for her. She left all her fortune, mil- 
lions, to Elsie, with a reservation. You’ve heard 
the story.” 

“ Not in detail ; tell me.” 

“ Well, you see, the Powell money was half my 
father’s and half his sister’s, Aunt Elizabeth. 
Father lost all his, sooner or later, in Wall Street. 
Aunt Elizabeth, she never married, left hers with 
a Trust Company, this way. Father was to have 
the interest of it all as long as he lived; then it 
all went to Elsie, — for the name, you know. 
Besides, at the time the will was made, my hus- 
band was alive and well-to-do. But, you see, 
only the interest was to come to Elsie, until her 
wedding day, then she is to have the whole for- 
tune.” 

“ Oh, well, the interest is enough for you all to 
live on, isn’t it? ” 

“ Goodness, yes ; we’ve lived on it for years, 
comfortable enough. But, here’s the trouble. 


56 The Disappearance of Kimball Webb 

If Elsie isn’t married by the time she is twenty- 
four, the whole fortune goes to a distant cousin of 
Aunt Elizabeth.” 

“ What an unjust will ! ” 

“ Oh, no ; you see, everybody would expect Elsie 
to marry before she was twenty-four. The rea- 
son of it all was Aunt Elizabeth’s own love affair. 
If she had married young all would have been 
well, but she waited, thinking she was too young, 
and her lover married somebody else. She never 
got over it, — I think it affected her mind. She 
wouldn’t look at anybody else, though she had 
lots of suitors, of course. So, she made a condi- 
tion that Elsie should marry before she was twen- 
ty-four. And it never seemed to us a hard condi- 
tion, for Elsie was engaged to Kimball before 
he went to France, you know. They would have 
been married much sooner but for the war. 
However, the wedding day which was to have 
been today, was in ample time to meet the re- 
quirements of the will. And now — ” 

“ Oh, well, Gerty, Kim will surely turn up be- 
fore the birthday in J une ! And, if he doesn’t, — 
Elsie will surely marry some one else, — rather 
than lose the inheritance ! ” 

“ That’s just it, — she won’t. She’s as stub- 
born as Aunt Powell herself, and she’d go to the 
poorhouse before she’d marry anybody but Kim- 
ball Webb!” 

“ Don’t worry, Kimball will return. Why, 


Aunt Elizabeth’s Will 57 

he’s too wrapped up in that play of his to stay 
away from New York very long.” 

“ But there’s no sense to it all ! If somebody 
spirited Kim off for a joke, — they’d surely re- 
turned him in time for the ceremony.” 

“ You’d think so. And the only other 
alternative is to think that he went away 
voluntarily, — which is, to say the least, hard 
on Elsie.” 

" “ He never went away because he didn’t want 

to marry her, — not much ! ” 

“ Mrs. Webb thinks he was spirited away.” 

“ So do I ! But by very human and physical 
spirits! I firmly believe Henrietta Webb or her 
mother, or both, managed the whole business, and 
they will keep Kim out of the way until after El- 
sie’s birthday, thinking she will marry some one 
else, and then they’ll produce Kim ! ” 

“ A queer theory, but perhaps about the easiest 
one to believe. And if, as you assume, Elsie 
won’t marry some one else, — what then?” 

“ That’s what I said a few minutes ago. And 
it will come hardest on mother and me. Elsie 
doesn’t care much for money, — oh, of course, she 
likes things comfortable, — she doesn’t realize 
what it would mean to have them any other way, 
— but she’d give up all for love. Now, mother 
and I have absolutely no income except the in- 
terest Elsie gets from the Powell money. And 
I have two little children — and mother is prac- 


58 The Disappearance of Kimball Webb 

tically an invalid, — and I think I may well ask, 
what then ? ” 

“ I think so too, Gerty ! It’s tough on you, — I 
didn’t know all this. Why, it will be awful if 
Elsie doesn’t marry ! What will become of you 
all?” 

“ I don’t know. I don’t even know how El- 
sie’s going to look at it. If she sees it right, and 
if Kimball never returns, of course, she ought to 
marry some nice man rather than let all that 
money go! But she’s quite capable of refusing 
point blank to marry any one but Kim, — and 
that’s what I think she’ll do.” 

“ She most likely will, if I know anything 
about Elsie ! ” 

“ You — you like her, — Fenn? ” 

“ Oh, Lord, yes ! I’ve been in love with her 
ever since I’ve known her. But she won’t look at 
me. And, — ahem, Gerty, I’m not a fortune 
hunter! ” 

“ Oh, no, of course not. But, — I do hope El- 
sie will be safely married before she reaches 
twenty-four ! ” 

“ So do I ! I’m with you there ! I’d hate to 
see all that money go out of your family. A 
pretty shabby will, I call it.” 

“ Oh, no, Fenn ; nobody could foresee this thing 
that has happened. And but for this mysterious 
disappearance, Elsie would be already married 
and everything all right.” 


Aunt Elizabeth’s Will 


59 


“ She’s willing to allow you and the children 
and your mother enough to live on, after she’s 
married? ” 

“ Yes, indeed. She’s most generous. Her al- 
lowance to us is all we could ask. I wish I knew 
her ideas about it all.” 

“ Poor child, I don’t believe she has any ideas 
as yet. It’s an awful shock to her, and it came 
so suddenly. I wonder she bears up at all.” 

“ Oh, that’s Elsie. You’ll see. Tomorrow, 
she’ll be ready with all sorts of plans and sugges- 
tions about hunting up Kim. They won’t 
amount to anything, — they can’t, but she’ll try 
every possible way to find him ! ” 

“ Hopeless task, — hunting for him, I mean. 
If he can, — he’ll turn up of his own accord. 
And if he can’t — ” 

“Fenn! You don’t — you don’t think — he’s 

— dead, do you? ” 

“ I haven’t any reason to think that, Gerty. 
Yet it must be considered among the possibilities. 
You know, there’s the question of that diamond 
pendant. Kim had it with him at the dinner, 
and he had it after he reached home, last night, 
for he showed it to his mother, they say. Well, 
suppose a burglar got into his room to steal that, 

— it must be worth ten thousand dollars? ” 

“ Yes, it is, — or a little more.” 

“ Well, isn’t a burglar a more plausible suppo- 
sition than a practical joker, after all? ” 


60 The Disappearance of Kimball Webb 

“ How did he get in? ” 

“ That question, Gerty, must be asked regard- 
ing any intruder. Moreover, how did he get out? 
must be asked in connection with an intruder, — 
or with Kim alone. Anyway, the diamonds are 
not to be found, — ” 

“ Kim probably has them with him, — wher- 
ever he is.” 

“ That’s true enough, but a probability isn’t 
a certainty.” 

“ If, as I still think, the two Webb women are 
behind it all, — they have the diamonds.” 

“ Yes, of course. Why are they so down on El- 
sie? ” 

“ Oh, only because she wasn’t born in 
Boston ! ” 

“ Really? Is that all?” 

“Yes; that is, I mean, the Webbs don’t think 
the Powells in their own social rank. Nobody 
could dislike Elsie, personally ; she’s the sweetest 
thing in the world ! ” 

“ Of course she is, but she never seems to hit it 
off with Friend Henrietta.” 

“ It’s Henrietta’s fault entirely ! Elsie has 
been like an angel to her, but Miss Webb is al- 
ways haughty and superior. She has never been 
reconciled to the match and never will be ! ” 

“ Well, I hope old Kimmy will turn up, and 
the match will come off, — and in time to save 
the inheritance ! ” 


Aunt Elizabeth’s Will 


61 


“ The match will come off, if Kimball can be 
found, whether it’s in time to save the inher- 
itance or not ! ” 

This announcement was made by Elsie herself, 
who suddenly appeared in boudoir robe and cap. 
“ I heard you,” she went on, “ and I came in to 
tell you my decision, — to state my platform ! ” 

Her eyes shone with excitement, her cheeks 
were flushed and she was trembling nervously. 

“ Elsie dear,” begged Gerty, “ don’t let’s talk 
any more about it tonight.” 

“ Yes, I will ; I’ve been listening to you two, 
and as Fenn is going over to the Webbs’ now, 
and he will see the police there, I suppose, I want 
him to know just where I stand. I shall make it 
my work, — my life work, if necessary, — to find 
Kimball. I know, as well as I know my own 
name, that he was taken away by force. I won’t 
say who I think did it, or was responsible for 
the deed, but I shall get him back! The police 
can go ahead, let them do all they can, — it won’t 
be much. The abduction of Kimball Webb, — for 
it is an abduction, — was a carefully planned, 
cleverly carried out scheme. I won’t say who’s 
at the bottom of it, — but I know.” 

“ You mean the Webbs,” said Gerty saga- 
ciously. 

“ It’s an awful thing to say,” Elsie admitted, 
“ but I do mean the Webbs. Who else could it 
be? That joke business is nonsense, — and be- 


62 The Disappearance of Kimball Webb 

sides the jokers would have restored him in time 
for the wedding. They wouldn’t be so cruel to 
me.” 

“ No ; they wouldn’t,” agreed Whiting. “ But, 
be careful, Elsie, how you accuse the Webbs. 
You don’t want to get into deeper trouble 
than — ” 

“ I can’t be in deeper trouble than I am now ! 
You know that, Fenn. But I’ve got sense 
enough to know better than to accuse the Webbs 
openly! I know that would be the very way to 
spike my own guns! No, Miss Henrietta Webb 
is a very clever schemer, but I’ll outwit her yet ! ” 

“ And if not? ” said Gerty, alarmed at the pos- 
sibilities crowding her mind. 

“ If not, if Kimball Webb is never restored to 
me, I shall live and die an old maid, — just as 
Aunt Elizabeth did.” 

“ But, Elsie,” Gerty cried, “ think of mother ! 
think of me, and the children ! Surely, you have 
some generosity, some loyalty to your people? ” 

“ Not to the extent of selling myself for them,” 
said Elsie, sternly. “ If anybody in this family 
is to marry for money, you can do it, Gerty. 
You have several rich suitors, to my certain 
knowledge ■ — ” 

“Nothing of the sort, Elsie! I think you’re 
disgraceful ! ” 

“No more disgraceful than for me to marry 
some one I don’t love, in time to secure Aunt 


Aunt Elizabeth’s Will 


63 


Powell’s money ! And, anyway, I can look after 
mother, — I can work — ■” 

“ Yes! What could you do? ” Gerty scoffed. 

“ Oh, I don’t know ; stenography or something. 
Anyway, I could take care of mother, and you 
certainly could do as much for yourself, Gerty. 
If you don’t want to marry, you could work, too.” 

“ Oh, Elsie, — and leave this house, — this 
apartment — ” 

“Yes; I’d far rather, than marry anybody, — 
anybody except Kimball. But, understand this ; 
I’m going to find that man — ” 

“ Elsie ! ” exclaimed Whiting; “ you speak as if 
he were held somewhere in durance vile ! ” 

“Not durance vile, but held, — yes! And by 
his mother and sister.” 

“ With his own consent ? ” 

“ Most certainly not ! ” 

“ Then your theory is rubbish. How could 
they hold him against his will? ” 

“ I don’t know — but I shall find out ! Good- 
night.” 


CHAPTER V 


ELSIE MAKES INQUIRIES 

E LSIE POWELL’S nature was generous. 

She gave of herself to all with whom she 
came in contact, and gave freely and willingly; 
time, thought, and sympathy as well as more 
material gifts. Her disposition was so free from 
selfishness that not always did she sufficiently 
guard her own interests. 

But when need arose, she promptly rose to the 
occasion. 

And the morning after the day which was to 
have been her wedding-day, she awoke with a sad- 
dened heart but a mind alert and ready to plan 
and execute action of some sort that should bring 
about the end of her troubles. She wasted little 
time in grieving, — indeed her mental attitude 
w T as that of dumfounded amazement rather than 
grief. 

Lying in her pretty room, partly dismantled by 
reason of her anticipated flight from it, she sized 
up the situation to herself. 

“ If I go to pieces,” she mused, “ it will do no 
good, and will be small comfort to me. There- 
fore, I will brace up, put my wits to work and do 
my part toward solving the mystery. And I’ll 

64 


65 


Elsie Makes Inquiries 

do more than any fool detective. I never had 
much opinion of their cleverness, anyhow. To 
begin with they’d never dare suspect Henrietta 
Webb, and if they did, she’d pull the wool over 
their eyes. Hut she can’t bamboozle me, and 
I’m going to * ^art out by assuming that in some 
mysterious way she has hidden Kim and means 
to keep him hidden until I marry somebody else, 
— which, of course, she thinks I’ll do, in order to 
get my inheritance. But I shan’t ! How would 
I feel, married to John Doe, and then have Kim- 
ball come home and look at me reproachfully! 
Not much. If I don’t marry Kimball Webb, I 
marry nobody at all, — and that settles that ! ” 
Her decision arrived at, Elsie hopped out of 
bed, and dressed and went to breakfast quite as 
usual. 

“ Why, Elsie,” exclaimed Gerty ; “ you needn’t 
get up! I’ll look after everything, — I suppose 
there will be reporters and, later on, callers in 
shoals — ” 

“ Yes, Gert, you may attend to those; I’m going 
on the warpath ! ” 

“ Meaning? ” 

“ I’m going to solve the mystery of Kim’s get- 
away, — though it’s no mystery to me ! But I’m 
going to get him back. That’s all about that! ” 
“ How are you going to set out? ” 

“ Dunno. First, I’m going over to the Webb 
house, and see what they’ve got to say. I didn’t 


66 The Disappearance of Kimball Webb 

get any satisfaction out of them yesterday, but 
I’m going to make them surrender. They owe 
me one Kimball, and I’m going to collect ! ” 

“ I don’t think you ought to go out today, El- 
sie.” 

“ Rubbish ! You talk as if Kim were dead ! 
I’m not a widow, to stay in seclusion. No, 
ma’am ; I’ve thought it all out and I’ve made up 
my mind.” 

Gerty protested no more. She knew from ex- 
perience, when Elsie’s mind was made up, noth- 
ing could shake it. 

At the Webb house, Elsie found her prospec- 
tive relalives-in-law closeted with a detective. 
He was a City Official, from the Bureau of Miss- 
ing Persons, and he was deeply interested in the 
case. 

Often missing persons were merely placed on 
record, and little was done by way of effort to 
discover their whereabouts. But in the case of 
Kimball Webb a big story was anticipated. 
Moreover, the absolute insolubility of the puzzle 
of how he managed his flight, — or how it was 
managed for him, gave an added interest. 

Elsie’s arrival, also, thrilled the detective, and 
he turned eagerly to question her. 

However, he found himself the questioned one 
instead of the inquirer. 

“I’m glad to meet you, Mr. Hanley,” Elsie 


67 


Elsie Makes Inquiries 

smiled at him; “tell me, won’t you, just how 
you’re going to set to work on the case? For I 
mean to help you, and I want to do so intelli- 
gently.” 

She glanced at the two Webbs for a nod of sanc- 
tion but she received no such encouragement. 

Indeed, Henrietta gave a scornful sniff, and 
Mrs. Webb remarked : 

“ Don’t be forward, Elsie. You can’t help, 
and it would look very queer if you tried.” 

“ It’ll be queer if I don’t try,” Elsie returned, 
but with a smile that freed her words from rude- 
ness. “ I’m most certainly going to work on the 
case, and if Mr. Hanley doesn’t want my help, 
I’ll work on my own lines.” 

Hanley looked at her with growing respect. 
Here, he decided, was no silly society girl, but a 
young woman of brain and, perhaps, initiative. 

“ You know nothing that will throw any light 
on Mr. Webb’s absence? ” he asked, gazing in- 
tently at her. 

“No, indeed; if I had I should have told it 
without being asked. I’m here to learn, to seek, 
to solve, — not to inform.” 

“ Yes, — oh, certainly.” The detective was a 
little flustered. 

Miss Webb had been haughty, even conde- 
scending, — but Hanley knew that sort. Elsie’s 
attitude was a new one to him, and he had to 
adjust himself. 


68 The Disappearance of Kimball Webb 

“ Well, Mr. Hanley,” the sweet voice went on, 
“ which is it to be? Do we work together, or, 
each for himself? ” 

“ Together, miss, by all means. I’ll be only 
too glad of any help you can give me.” 

Hanley had decided ; it would certainly be bet- 
ter for him to be in with the one most nearly 
affected, and he considered that Elsie was. 

Although, to be sure, the Webbs had called 
him in, and he was responsible to them. Nor did 
it require an abnormally acute mind to discern 
that the Webbs and Miss Powell were not en- 
tirely at one. 

This impression of his was deepened when Miss 
Webb said, severely, “ I must beg of you, Elsie, 
not to disgrace us by any public effort in this dis- 
tressing matter. We are already sufficiently 
embarrassed at the unfortunate publicity it has 
gained, and I want to keep further disclosures 
entirely to ourselves.” 

“ Can’t be done, Miss Webb,” said Hanley; 
“ the thing is out, — why, ma’am, it had to come 
out ! And now, you can no more stop the press 
notice of it than you could dam the Hudson! 
Better take that part of it calmly, for the papers 
will be full of it for nine days, at least. Now, 
ma’am, I’d like to see Mr. Webb’s room.” 

Dejectedly, Henrietta Webb led the way. 
Elsie followed, as a matter of course, and soon 
Hanley was silently but carefully scrutinizing 


Elsie Makes Inquiries 69 

the furniture, walls and floor of the room in 
question. 

“ No exit but the door, — so far as appears on 
the surface,” he remarked, at last. “ You don’t 
know of any secret entrance, I suppose ! ” 

“ Certainly not,” said Henrietta, positively. 
“ Those things occur in old country houses, — not 
in city homes.” 

“ Well, we must think of everything,” Hanley 
said, and he proceeded to tap walls, and parti- 
tions in a knowing manner. 

“ Nope, nothing of that sort,” he concluded, 
after exhaustive experimenting. 

“ You’re sure? ” asked Elsie, her eyes shining 
with eagerness. “ I had thought there might be 
something like that.” 

“ No, ma’am,” declared Hanley ; “ I know a lot 
about building, and I can tell for sure and cer- 
tain, there’s no entrance through these walls of 
any sort. Why, look at the wall paper, — intact 
all round. And, not only that, but I can tell by 
tapping, there’s no chance of a secret door or 
panel.” 

“ Mr. Whiting is an architect, and he said the 
same,” observed Miss Webb, coldly, as if to 
disparage Hanley’s would-be superior knowl- 
edge. 

“ There, you see ! ” said Hanley, taking the 
snub in good part. “ If a smart architect and a 
smart detective agree there’s no secret passage or 


70 The Disappearance of Kimball Webb 

entrance or exit, you may depend on it there isn’t 
any.” 

“ What about the chimney?” asked Elsie. 
“ I’ve thought this all out, you see.” 

“ Quite right, miss.” But Hanley’s investiga- 
tion of the chimney that he made by looking up 
inside the big, old-fashioned fireplace, showed 
him at once the impossibility of any one entering 
or leaving the room by that means. 

“ A monkey couldn’t negotiate that,” he 
stated, “ let alone a man.” 

The bathroom gave no hint of help. The little 
window had been found closed and fastened, and 
save for the entrance door there was no other 
break in the walls. 

In a word, Hanley expressed his positive assur- 
ance that nobody could by any chance enter or 
leave Kimball Webb’s room, except by the door 
that opened from the hall. 

“ The windows are out of the question,” he 
asserted. “ To begin with, they’re third story 
windows, with a sheer drop to the street. 

“ Next, they were opened only at the tops for a 
few inches, and fastened in that position. No- 
body could get through one of those narrow 
apertures.” 

This was so evident, there was no use dwelling 
on it. 

“ Then,” said Elsie, slowly, “ the problem 
comes down to this ; how did Mr. Webb get out 


71 


Elsie Makes Inquiries 

through the door, and leave it fastened behind 
him, — not only locked with a key, but bolted with 
a strong, firm bolt? ” 

“ That’s the problem,” and the detective looked 
at her in admiration. 

He had never seen a young woman, — a mere 
girl, who could so succinctly state a case. 

“ But, granting that,” urged Henrietta Webb, 
“ where is he now? The front street door was 
fastened with heavy bolts, all of which were in- 
tact in the morning. The rear door, the same.” 

“ Then,” said Elsie, turning on her quickly, 
“ he must be in this house still ! ” 

Henrietta Webb turned pale. “ What non- 
sense ! ” she cried. “ In that case, Elsie, are you 
smart enough to find him?” and with a sup- 
pressed exclamation, half shriek and half gasp, 
she ran from the room, and they heard her go 
downstairs to her mother’s room. 

“ Good ! ” cried Elsie. “ I’m glad she’s gone ! 
Excuse me, Mr. Hanley, but though she is his 
sister, I am Mr. Webb’s -fiancee , and I have really 
more reason to want to find him than anybody 
else on earth. And I’m going to find him, too! 
But, first, can you form any theory? Can you 
make any suggestion ? ” 

“ I can’t. I’ve never seen a case that ran so 
hopelessly up against a blank wall. There’s foul 
play, somewhere, — that is, unless — you don’t 
think — ” 


72 The Disappearance of Kimball Webb 

Elsie read his thoughts. 

“ No, I don’t think Mr. Webb went away of 
his own volition. I know he did not! And 
quite aside from his love for me, and his wish to 
marry me yesterday, if those things hadn’t been 
so, Mr. Webb is too much of a gentleman, too 
kind-hearted a man, to go away and leave his 
mother and sister, to say nothing of myself, in 
this fearful predicament.” 

“ That’s right! No decent man could do such 
a sneak! Well, then as it’s perfectly clear you 
suspect Miss Webb of being complicated, — why 
do you? ” 

“ I don’t want to say anything against Miss 
Webb. I’ve nothing to say against anybody. 
But, — oughtn’t a detective to suspect everybody? 
Or at least, to investigate the possibilities of 
every suspect? ” 

“Yes’m; that’s right. Never mind why. 
I’ll bear in mind that Miss Webb’s part in the 
matter must be inquired into. Any more 
hints? ” 

“ Oh, that isn’t a hint. What sort of a de- 
tective are you, asking for hints? Why don’t 
you get busy? Hunt for clues, or something 
definite like that ! ” 

“ Clues? Why, it isn’t a murder! ” 

“ You don’t know, — it may be ! And, anyway, 
there are clues to other crimes than murder.” 

“ But it isn’t a crime. Leastways, — ” 


73 


Elsie Makes Inquiries 

“ Leastways, you’re absolutely useless ! Go 
away, I’ll bunt for clues myself. And, first of 
all, where are those white marks that were on 
the floor yesterday? ” 

“ White marks? What sort of marks?” 

“ Just some white daubs. They showed clearly 
on this plain green carpet, and now they’re 
gone.” 

“ Anything else been disturbed? ” 

“ No, except that the whole room seems to 
have been cleaned, the bed made, and the 
chiffonier tidied.” 

“ Oh, well, they told me about that. The con- 
dition of the room only went to prove that Mr. 
Webb had retired as usual on Wednesday night, 
and then he went away either in his evening 
clothes and carried his night clothes with him; 
or he went wearing his night things and carrying 
his dress suit.” 

“ Either of which suppositions is absolutely 
ridiculous! As he had been to bed, why dress 
again in his dinner clothes, and why take his 
pajamas with him? Or, if he went away in his 
night clothes, — why in the world wouldn’t he 
carry a morning suit with him, — and not full 
dress? ” 

“ Right you are, — it all don’t get us any- 
where ! ” 

“ But it ought to ! The very fact that the con- 
ditions are ridiculous, — inexplicable, — ought to 


74 The Disappearance of Kimball Webb 

make it easier to get up a theory. If he had 
gone away in a business suit and carried his 
night things in a bag, it would be easily believed 
he had suddenly been called on some important 
matter. But to go off with evening clothes and 
no other suit is so ridiculous, that it ought to 
point to some inevitable conclusion, — even if not 
a definite one ! ” 

“ My ! You sure are a thinker, Miss Powell ! 
But, — let’s hear that indefinite conclusion you’d 
draw from the facts ! ” 

“ I haven’t drawn it yet, — but I shall, — and, 
I want you to help me.” 

Elsie’s appealing smile brought a hearty 
“ Sure I will, miss ! ” and after some further 
futile looking about, they both went down- 
stairs. 

Elsie waylaid the chambermaid, and stepped 
aside to speak with her. 

“ Did you do up Mr. Webb’s room yesterday? ” 
she asked, with an ingratiating glance. 

“ Yes, miss,” replied the girl, a bit frightened. 

“ That’s all right ; only, tell me, did you notice 
those white marks on the carpet? ” 

“ I did, ma’am, — and I tried hard to get it all 
off? Did I leave any sign of it? ” 

“No; I wish you had! But never mind. 
What do you think made those marks? ” 

“ I couldn’t say, ma’am. They was like chalk, 
now, and mighty hard to get off they was.” 


Elsie Makes Inquiries 75 

“ You remember just how they looked, — and 
where they were? ” 

“ Oh, yes, ma’am” 

“ Very well, then, that’s all. Don’t mention 
the matter to anybody, please.” 

“ No, ma’am, I won’t.” 

Elsie went on down to the drawing room, and 
there found Mrs. Webb making the detective’s 
hair stand on end, as she detailed to him her ex- 
periences with spirits and her reasons for belief 
that her son had been taken away from his home 
by supernatural means. 

Hanley listened, more with a horrified interest 
in her talk than with any belief in its bearing 
on the present case, and Elsie almost laughed 
outright as she heard Mrs. Webb solemnly avow- 
ing that she had seen, at seances , live people 
wafted through a solid wooden door. 

“ Oh, come, now,” she said, as she entered the 
room. “ Dear Mrs. Webb, don’t ask us to believe 
such things ! ” 

“ Believe or not, as you choose,” said Mrs. 
Webb, haughtily; “your scepticism only exposes 
your ignorance. Why, innumerable such cases 
are on record; to students of spiritism the pass- 
ing of matter through matter is one of the proved 
facts of psychical research.” 

“ And you think that Kim passed through that 
locked wooden door? Through the panels, — and 
left no trace of his passing? ” 


76 The Disappearance of Kimball Webb 

“ I do, — indeed I do, Elsie ! For, my der r 
child, what other explanation is there? ” 

Mrs. Webb’s triumphant air impressed her 
hearers, even though it amused them. The trust- 
ing soul believed so implicitly in her creed that 
one must respect her sincerity, at least. 

“ Who lives next door? ” asked Hanley, sud- 
denly. 

“ Which side? ” asked Mrs. Webb. “ On the 
left, is the home of Owen Thorne, the banker; 
and on the other side, the Marsden St. Johns 
live. They’re at Lakewood just now; they’re al- 
ways there in the spring. But they don’t own 
the house they live in. It’s Mr. Whiting’s. Part 
of the estate his father left him.” 

“ Are the Thorne family at home? ” 

“ Yes, so far as I know. They were there yes- 
terday. Why? ” 

“ I only wondered if any of the neighbors saw 
Mr. Webb leave this house during the night.” 

“ Maybe he hasn’t left it,” put in Elsie. 

“ He must have done so. He couldn’t be con- 
cealed here against his will all this time, and 
you won’t allow that he’s willingly absent.” 

“ Of course I won’t ! ” 

“ Then he must have left this house between 
the hours of two a. m. and, say, seven, — or, 
when did you call him, Mrs. Webb? ” 

“ About eight, or soon after.” 

“ Very well, say he got away, — somehow, — 


77 


Elsie Makes Inquiries 

between two and eight, — there’s a possibility 
that a watching or wakeful neighbor might have 
seen him go.” 

“ Oh, I see,” and Mrs. Webb nodded. “ Well, 
make inquiries. As I said, the St. Johns are 
away, and their house is closed; but ask the 
Thornes if you like. It’s quite possible they saw 
something ! ” 

The weird look came again into her eyes, and 
Elsie at once surmised that Kimball’s mother had 
a mental vision of her son, wafted by super- 
natural means through his own bedroom door, 
down two flights of stairs, and through the closed 
and locked street door, out, — away, nobody knew 
where, and the interested neighbors looking on! 

Then Henry Harbison was announced, and 
with a sigh of relief Elsie turned to talk to him. 

Harbison was to have been an usher at the 
wedding, and he called to see if he could be of 
any assistance to the family of the missing bride- 
groom. 

After sympathetic greetings and inquiries, the 
young man took an active part in the discussion 
of the mystery. 

“ It’s the strangest thing I ever heard of ! ” he 
declared ; “ but I bet I can put you wise to a 
possible solution, anyway.” 

“ Good ! ” cried Hanley ; “ I confess it baffles 
me. I’m about to give up my part in it and ask 
the Chief to turn it over to a cleverer man.” 


78 The Disappearance of Kimball Webb 

“ Don't! ” begged Elsie; “ you and I are work- 
ing together, you know, Mr. Hanley, — and I like 
your methods.” 

Hanley stared. What had she seen of his 
methods, as yet, he wondered. 

“ Well, here’s my theory,” began Harbison. 
“ I was at Kimball’s bachelor dinner, you know, 
night before last, at the Club. Also, Wallace 
Courtney was there. Now, you know, Mrs. 
Webb, your son is writing a play, — a mighty 
clever one, too, founded on a satirical view of 
New England aristocratic tendencies.” 

Mrs. Webb flushed almost angrily. 

“ I do know it, — and I regret it exceedingly. 
I strongly advised Kimball against such ridicul- 
ing of his native town and of his own family 
traditions and standards, but he only laughed, 
and said nothing was too sacred to use for 
material for a play. Yes, Mr. Harbison, I know 
all about that play. It’s nearly finished, too.” 

“ That’s the point. As you may or may not 
know, Wallace Courtney is a playwright, also, 
and by the merest chance, he is writing a satirical 
play on the very same subject. Now, he didn’t 
know about Kim’s play, until the night of the 
dinner. It was mentioned, and Courtney asked 
Kim what it was about, — that is, how he had 
treated the matter. Well, sir, do you know 
they’ve chosen almost identical plots ! Why, 
whichever of those plays first reaches the public, 


79 


Elsie Makes Inquiries 

the other will be stamped as a plagiarism. 
Courtney was terribly put out. He tried to con- 
ceal his wrath, but it kept cropping out — ” 

“ Why, Kimball wasn’t to blame ! ” cried 
Elsie. 

“ Not a bit. But Courtney was so upset at the 
coincidence, and the peculiar situation. Well, 
he worried around until he found out that Kim’s 
play was nearing completion, — and then he went 
to pieces for fair. ‘ You shan’t put it on!’ he 
cried, excitedly. i I’ll move Heaven and earth 
to prevent you! Why, it wipes out my every 
chance ! ’ Oh, he said a lot more in that strain, 
and Kimball added fuel to the fire by treating 
it lightly. ‘ Go ahead with your play, Wally,’ 
he told him ; ‘ I’m going on my honeymoon, and 
I’ll be gone a fortnight or more. You’ll have 
time to get ahead of me.’ Of course that 
wouldn’t give Courtney time enough, nor any 
where near it, — and he sulked all the evening. 
We all guyed him on his ill nature, but that only 
made things worse. Now, here’s my suggestion. 
Pretty slim, I admit, — but take it for what it’s 
worth. Might Courtney somehow or other have 
kidnapped Kimmy, intending to keep him away 
until he can get his own play finished and on the 
road to production? ” 

“ Motive all right,” said the detective, smiling, 
“ but how about the method? ” 

“ That’s where I get off,” and Harbison 


80 The Disappearance of Kimball Webb 

laughed. “ You see, while the whole affair is 
pretty awful in a social way, and has made a 
fearful mess of the wedding, and all that, I can’t 
look on it as a tragedy.” 

“ Who does? ” exclaimed Elsie. “ Of course, 
there’s no tragedy, — if you mean any harm to 
Kimball, personally, — but I do call it a tragedy 
all the same ! ” 

“ It is,” Hanley agreed ; “ but, of course, the 
angle I get is the mystery side of it. How did 
Mr. Webb get out of his door, and lock it behind 
him? That’s what I want to know ! ” 


CHAPTER VI 


A HAUNTED ROOM 

“XT OU’RE right, man/ , declared Harbison; 

X “ let’s tackle that problem seriously. How 
could it be done, — no matter how absurd or un- 
likely the suggestion? ” 

“ First,” enumerated Hanley, “ there’s Mrs. 
Webb’s suggestion of spirits.” 

“ It would be hard to beat that for unlikeli- 
ness ! ” said Harbison, speaking very seriously, 
and entirely ignoring Mrs. Webb’s disdainful ex- 
pression. “ Now, see here, — how about turning 
the key from the outside by means of a very 
powerful magnet — ” 

“ No such thing possible,” Hanley declared. 
“ There’s not a magnet in existence that could 
do that. And shoot the bolt also, did you 
mean? ” 

“ Yes, I did. But, of course, it’s only a sug- 
gestion. Well, what else? ” 

“ Untruthfulness ! ” said Elsie, suddenly, 
coming out into the open. “ I regret exceed- 
ingly to mention such a thing, but as there is no 
explanation of the alleged facts, — must we not 
doubt the truth of the alleged facts? ” 

Henrietta Webb glared at her. “ Do you 
81 


82 The Disappearance of Kimball Webb 

mean/’ she cried, “ that we have not told you the 
truth about finding Kim’s door locked? ” 

“ That’s precisely what I mean ! ” and a red 
spot appeared on Elsie’s either cheek. “ If you 
can offer the slightest, vaguest sort of a hint as 
to how your story could be true, I’ll listen ; but 
if you can’t, you must not be surprised that I 
refuse to believe it.” 

“ Doubt my word? Let me tell you, miss, a 
Webb does not speak untruth ! ” 

“ Not ordinarily, — nor do most of us. But I 
know, Henrietta, that you would resort to any 
means to prevent Kimball from marrying me, 
and I am justified in thinking you have done so.” 

“ What do you mean, Miss Powell,” asked Han- 
ley ; “ that Mr. Webb went away voluntarily? ” 

“ Not exactly. I mean that I think he was 
persuaded, forced or tricked into going away by 
his sister, and that the broken lock and burst 
bolt are fabrications to mislead investigators.” 

Henrietta Webb looked at Elsie, first with 
amazed scorn, and then, her face changing to a 
gentler expression, she said, “ You are not quite 
responsible, dear. I shall not hold your speech 
against you. And, really, I’m not surprised 
that you try to grasp at any straw, in this sea of 
mystery. But,” she turned to Harbison and 
the detective, “ there is no reason to doubt the 
truth of the story of my brother’s disappearance. 


A Haunted Room 


83 


Our butler and chauffeur will corroborate it, and 
will tell you just bow much difficulty they had in 
entering the room.” 

At Hanley’s request, Hollis and Oscar were 
summoned, and they told in detail the events of 
the morning before. 

“And you heard or saw nothing that could 
give you the slightest hint as to any reason for 
Mr. Webb’s disappearance? ” 

“No ! ” both men answered. 

“ You saw or heard nothing unusual or that 
you could not understand? ” the detective con- 
tinued. 

“ Well, sir,” Oscar began, “ when I ran up- 
stairs, and Miss Webb was waiting outside her 
brother’s door, “ I heard her say, to herself, i Oh, 
if it should be ! ’ — sort of excited like.” 

“ Whom was she speaking to? ” 

“ To nobody, sir, just to herself.” 

“ What did you mean by that speech, Miss 
Webb? ” Hanley inquired. 

“ I didn’t make it,” replied Henrietta coolly. 
“ Oscar is mistaken. He imagined it all.” 

“I told you so!” Elsie cried, irrepressibly; 
“ I knew Miss Webb was at the bottom of it 
all ! ” 

“ Well, such a speech as that doesn’t prove it,” 
Hanley observed. “ It rather lets her out. If 
she had concealed her brother previously, why 


84 The Disappearance of Kimball Webb 

should she say those words? And if she was 
merely hoping he had gone away, it goes to show 
she had no hand in the matter.” 

Henrietta’s face was expressionless, as if the 
subject interested her not at all. 

“ You will all have to agree with me, sooner or 
later,” Mrs. Webb began. “ There is, as you’ve 
seen, no normal explanation. Only the super- 
natural remains. And, you ought to know, that 
room of Kimball’s has been haunted for a long 
time.” 

“ What, haunted? ” exclaimed Hanley. 

“ Yes, sir. Not only my son and my daughter 
have heard and seen strange things in it, but the 
maids have also had such experiences.” 

“ Such as what? ” 

“ Hearing queer sounds. Once, there was a 
complete conversation carried on by voices that 
belonged to invisible people.” 

“ This is interesting only if confirmed by 
credible witnesses,” Hanley said. 

“ It interests me, anyway,” said Harbison. 
“ I don’t believe in levitation and the passing of 
a human body through a locked door, but a 
haunted room always thrills me. Tell me some 
more about it.” 

“ I will,” said Henrietta. “ For the last year 
or two, there have been times when voices were 
audible there. Not loud or entirely distinct, — 
but vaguely to be heard, — like the sound of a 


A Haunted Room 


85 


faraway speaker. My brother heard them, — he 
frequently told me so.” 

“ Well, not frequently, Henrietta,” said her 
mother, correcting her, “ but two or 'three 
times.” 

“ Who else heard them? ” asked Hanley, 
briefly. 

“ The servants,” Henrietta informed them. 
“ One chambermaid was so frightened she left at 
once.” 

“ Oh, fiddlesticks ! ” cried Harbison. “ This 
gets us nowhere ! If they were really spirits it is 
absurd; and if, as I thought at first, they were 
human voices, heard through a secret passage or 
a hollow panel, it’s up to us to find the secret 
entrance.” 

“ There isn’t any,” declared Hanley. “ I’ve 
sounded and tested every bit of wall in the room.” 

“ All the same, I’d like a try at it,” Harbison 
declared, and asking permission, he went alone 
up to the room that had been Kimball Webb’s. 

“ Who saw Mr. Webb last? ” asked Hanley, by 
way of pursuing his duty. 

“ I suppose I did,” answered his mother. “ He 
came to my room to say good night, as he often 
does, after he’s been out late. We had a little 
chat, and then he kissed me good night, and I 
heard him go upstairs.” 

“ Did you hear him, Miss Webb? ” 

“ N — no ; I was asleep.” 


86 The Disappearance of Kimball Webb 

“And he didn’t wake you as he passed your 
door? ” 

“No; it was closed. I didn’t hear his foot- 
steps.” 

“ But you went up to his room later ! ” Elsie 
cried, accusingly. 

“ N — no, I didn’t ! What do you mean? ” 

Henrietta W^ebb spoke hesitatingly; one would 
have said she was prevaricating, from the manner 
of her speech. But she looked straight at Elsie, 
and demanded an explanation of her words. 

“ Then, you were up in Kim’s room before he 
came home that night.” 

“No, I wasn’t. Why do you say these 
things? ” 

“ When were you in your brother’s room last, 
before he — went away? ” Elsie demanded. 

“ Oh, not for several days. I sometimes go up 
there to chat with him, but he’s been so pre- 
occupied lately, with his play and his wedding 
preparations both, that I haven’t intruded on his 
time.” 

“ You were up there the night before last, 
after Kim came home from the dinner ! ” Elsie 
declared, looking straight at Miss Webb, “ and 
you sat on the little sofa between the front 
windows.” 

“ I’ve been considerate of you, Elsie,” Miss 
Webb said, coldly, “ because I feel sorry for you, 
and I make allowances for your disturbed nerves 


A Haunted Room 


87 


and your — your natural lack of poise, — but, I 
warn you I won’t stand everything! Your ac- 
cusations are not only false, they’re ridiculous! 
If I had gone to Kim’s room and talked to him 
after his return, why should I deny it? ” 

“ Because you’re afraid it will incriminate 
you ! — in his disappearance ! Oh, Henrietta, 
where is he? Give him back to me! I love him 
so — I want him so ! Oh, Kimball, — my 
love — ” 

The girl gave way and burst into hysterical 
tears. Truly, she had not the poise of the woman 
before her, — but she had resiliency. 

In a moment she pulled herself together, 
steadied her voice, and said ; 

“ You were in Kim’s room that night, — and I 
can prove it by a witness! Stay here, — all of 
you ! ” 

She ran out of the room, and they heard her 
go upstairs. 

“ Don’t put too much reliance on what Miss 
Powell says,” Henrietta said to the detective. 
“ She’s not quite herself.” 

“ All right, ma’am,” returned Hanley, but he 
looked closely at the speaker. 

“ Any news ? ” asked a man’s voice from the 
doorway, and Fenn Whiting came into the room. 

“ I couldn’t keep away,” he went on. “ I’ve 
been over to the Powells’ and they said Elsie 
was here.” He looked about. 


88 The Disappearance of Kimball Webb 

“ She is,” began Henrietta, but Harbison, 
who had returned from his futile quest, im- 
patiently broke in. 

“ I say, Whiting, listen to my theory.” 

He proceeded to detail the matter of Court- 
ney’s play and recalled to Whiting the wrath that 
Courtney exhibited at the bachelor dinner. 

“ By Jove, he was mad! ” Whiting agreed, his 
attention arrested at once by the ideas Harbison 
put forth. 

“And, though it sounds like a cock and bull 
story,” Harbison went on, “ suppose Wally 
thinks to himself, if I could only tie Kim up 
somewhere till I can get my play finished and 
accepted by a manager, it will be my salvation! 
Now, of course, if he kidnapped Kim it had to be 
done before the wedding, so — ” 

“ It’s far-fetched,” said Whiting thoughtfully, 
“but I’ll say it’s the first thing I’ve heard put 
forth by way of a motive. You know finding a 
motive is a necessary step to be taken before find- 
ing the perpetrator of this thing.” 

“ I know the motive,” Elsie’s voice announced, 
as she entered in time to hear Whiting’s closing 
words. “ I’ve found the perpetrator, — and I did 
have proof, — but she’s destroyed it.” 

Elsie’s stern gaze at Henrietta Webb decidedly 
discomfited that cool, calm personality, and for 
the first time Miss Webb’s poise seemed about to 
desert her. 


A Haunted Room 89 

Ignoring the others, Elsie addressed herself to 
Hanley. 

“ I found a real clue, yesterday morning,” she 
said, “ when I went up to look around Mr. 
Webb’s room. On the floor, in front of the little 
sofa were several white marks, — ” 

“ How absurd ! ” cried Henrietta ; “ I beg of 
you don’t discuss the shortcomings of a careless 
housemaid ! ” 

“ White marks,” Elsie went on, as if unin- 
terrupted, “ that were made by the rubbing on 
the carpet of a woman’s white shoes. Shoes, I 
mean, that had been whitened with some of 
those chalk preparations that most women use, — 
or their maids use for them.” 

A side glance at Henrietta’s face showed Elsie 
that it was as white as the chalk in question, but 
she went on : “I know that those marks were 
made by Miss Webb’s shoes; I know that it was 
at her request that the maid carefully removed 
the marks from the green carpet; I know she 
gave the maid orders to say nothing about the 
matter; and I know she has destroyed or con- 
cealed those shoes ! ” 

Henrietta’s face became like a stone. Im- 
passive, unreadable, its expression showed 
neither embarrassment nor fear. Only in her 
eyes was there a sign of perturbation. Her 
glance at Elsie was defiant, and a little threat- 
ening. 


90 The Disappearance of Kimball Webb 

“ Well, Miss Webb,” Hanley began, “ you ad- 
vised me not to be too much impressed by Miss 
Powell’s statements, so I’ll ask you for a bit of 
explanation right here.” 

“ There is nothing to explain,” Henrietta be- 
gan, calmly ; “ I deny everything she has asserted. 
I may have been in my brother’s room during the 
past week, I may have left some white marks 
from my shoes on the carpet, but I do not recol- 
lect such an occasion, nor do I think it at all 
pertinent to the matter in hand. As to the mat- 
ter of the housemaid, that is pure fabrication. 
I am not in the habit of conniving with servants, 
as Miss Powell seems to be.” 

“ Which shoes of yours are so whitened that 
the marks on the carpet are usual, — and where 
are the shoes? ” Elsie demanded, pointing an ac- 
cusing finger at Miss Webb. 

“ I really don’t know,” Henrietta shrugged 
her shoulders. “ You must ask Janet, she looks 
after my wardrobe.” 

“ Come, come, Miss Powell,” said Hanley, im- 
pressed more by Henrietta’s indifference than by 
Elsie’s “ clue.” “ I don’t think you’re adapted to 
detective work. You overestimate the impor- 
tance of trifles.” 

“ Nothing is a trifle if it points the way to dis- 
covery,” said Elsie, her brown eyes flashing and 
her red lips quivering as she looked from one to 
another for help or sympathy. 


A Haunted Room 


91 


And it came, from Fenn Whiting. 

“ I think, Miss Webb,” he said, a bit shortly, 
“ that you owe us a little information. Doesn’t 
the maid clean the rooms each morning? ” 

“ Certainly.” 

“ Then white marks, as of chalked shoes, early 
in the morning would seem to me to imply that 
you were there the night before. Why not own 
up to it? It couldn’t have been on any secret 
errand? ” 

“ Of course it couldn’t. But I wasn’t there at 
all. The marks, if they existed outside of Elsie’s 
imagination, must have been made by one of the 
maids. They wear white shoes sometimes.” 

“ Then call the maid, and let her produce the 
shoes,” cried Elsie. “ I tell you, Mr. Hanley, this 
is a clue, and a real one. If you let it slip, you 
are not doing your duty.” 

Hanley became angry. 

“ It isn’t for a man twelve years on the force 
to be taught his duty by a chit of a girl who 
ought to be in school herself ! ” he exploded, and 
the nod of approval from Henrietta decided him 
to go on. “ I’m sorry, indeed, for you, Miss 
Powell, and it’s a small wonder that you’re nearly 
distracted, but I must insist that it isn’t right for 
you to imagine that Miss Webb is implicated. 
It seems to me much more likely that we ought 
to look in the direction of this Mr. Courtney. 
If he is the sort of a man to stop at nothing in 


92 The Disappearance of Kimball Webb 

the furtherance of his own schemes, I can believe 
that he has somehow secreted Kimball Webb in 
order to get his play done first.” 

“ How could he? ” Elsie cried; “ how could he 
get into the house? How could he get Kimball 
out? ” 

“ Those questions are unanswerable at present, 
no matter who the suspect is,” the detective re- 
turned, imperturbably. “ Now, look here, Miss 
Powell, I want to know about this will business. 
I’ve only heard a vague story. Is it true that if 
you are not married by a certain date, your for- 
tune is taken away from you? ” 

“ It is,” she replied ; “ and the date is the 
thirtieth of June. This gives us three months, 
nearly, to find Mr. Kimball Webb.” 

“ And that’s about time enough for Mr. Wall- 
ace Courtney to finish his precious play ! I pre- 
dict that you will not see Mr. Webb until Mr. 
Courtney’s play is finished ! ” 

“And you’re going to let him get away with 
it ! ” cried Harbison. “ Can one man put an- 
other aside in that fashion, at will, without pre- 
vention or even protest? ” 

“Well, hardly; but after all, it may not be 
Mr. Courtney at all. Here’s another point I 
want cleared up. In the event of your not marry- 
ing by the given date, Miss Powell, what becomes 
of your aunt’s money? ” 

“ It will go to a cousin of hers, who lives out 


A Haunted Room 


93 


West somewhere. I don’t know exactly where.” 

“ A relative of yours? ” 

“No; my aunt was my father’s half sister. 
This man is a connection of her motherland is no 
relation to my father or myself.” 

“ You know him? ” 

“ Only his name, Joseph Allison. I’ve never 
seen him, never heard from him. You see, there 
was no question of the fortune not being mine, as 
I expected to marry Mr. Kimball well within the 
prescribed time.” 

“ I see ; and may we not assume an interest on 
the part of this young man as to the disposition 
of the estate, in the event of your not marrying? ” 

“ Hullo ! ” exclaimed Harbison, “ that opens up 
a new field of conjecture. May not the young 
man have been sufficiently interested to go to 
the length of removing Kimball Webb from the 
field of action altogether? ” 

“ Oh, no,” Elsie said. “ You see, it’s this way. 
Mr. Allison tried to break the will at the time of 
my aunt’s death, four years ago ; but there wasn’t 
a chance of it, and so, as the lawyers told me, he 
gracefully gave up the matter and has never been 
heard from since.” 

“ That doesn’t prevent his still being inter- 
ested,” persisted Hanley. “ You see, Miss 
Powell, I’m an experienced detective. I’m no 
story-book chap, but I’m a good plain worker, 
and I keep my eyes open, with the result that I 


94 The Disappearance of Kimball Webb 

see a hole through a millstone, now and then. 
And, I think I’ve learned about all I can pick up 
here, just now. I shall look into the matter of 
Mr. Courtney and his play; also into the affairs 
of Mr. Joseph Allison. And let me advise you, 
Miss Powell, not to put your inexperienced 
fingers into pies that you don’t understand. A 
girl of your age and ignorance of these things 
can’t be a detective, — even an amateur one. So 
leave it all to those who know the ropes.” 

Hanley went away, and the others remained 
for a time. 

There was a silence at first, and then Henrietta 
said, “ I’m not going to reprove you, Elsie, I feel 
too sorry for you to do that, but I am going to ask 
you not to trump up any more such foolish yarns 
as the one you spun about the white shoes ! ” 

“What became of the shoes, then?” asked 
Elsie, bluntly. 

“ What shoes? There are no especial shoes to 
be considered. Drop the subject, dear. Such 
harping on it makes it seem as if you were not 
quite calmed down yet.” 

“ And I’m not, and I never shall be, until Kim- 
ball is given back to me ! I’m going to find him, 
myself, I don’t care what that detective says. 
Who is going to help me? ” 

“ I, for one,” said Henry Harbison, promptly. 
“ I’m mighty sorry for you, Miss Powell, and you 
may command me as you like.” 


A Haunted Room 


95 


u Thank you, Mr. Harbison ; I know you’re a 
firm friend of Kimball’s and I gladly accept your 
friendship also.” 

“ I suppose you know you can depend'on me to 
see you through, without any definite avowal,” 
said Fenn Whiting, smiling. 

“ Of course, Fenn, you are my right-hand man. 
But I want all the help I can get.” 

“ We’ll help you, Elsie,” Henrietta began, but 
Elsie only gave her a scornful glance. 

“ When you are ready to help, Henrietta, begin 
by telling me about your white shoes.” 

Miss Webb made a scornful gesture, as of one 
powerless to aid such a wilful girl, and Mrs. 
Webb began on her hobby. 

“ You can all search and detect and deduce all 
you like ; there is nothing that can explain Kim’s 
disappearance or solve the mystery of his absence 
except supernatural forces. Carp as you will, 
object as you see fit, you must admit there’s no 
other way out ! ” 

“ You’re right, to a degree, Mrs. Webb,” said 
Penn Whiting slowly ; “ there’s no other way 
out ! I don’t for a minute believe in spooks, but 
— I’m ready to agree there’s no other way out.” 

“ Then we must stay in,” said Harbison. 

“ Not we!” declared Elsie; “not I, at least. 
And you men have promised to help me. Now, 
first of all, is there any chance of Joe Allison 
being implicated? I hadn’t thought of it, — but 


96 The Disappearance of Kimball Webb 

it must, as Mr. Hanley said, be looked into.” 

“ How could be manage it? ” asked Whiting. 
“ Courtney looks more possible, if you ask me.” 

“ I do ask you,” said Elsie, “ I ask you all. I 
want your help, your counsel, your advice. I am 
inexperienced, I’ve no knowledge of police work 
or detective work, but I have courage, hope and 
a will that is unbreakable and unshakable! I 
will go through fire and water, I will move heaven 
and earth, I will face danger of any sort, I will 
suffer or endure anything, — if it will help in the 
least degree to get Kimball back.” 

“ Never mind the theatrical demonstration, 
Elsie,” said Henrietta, scoffingly, “ we all want 
Kim back, but we don’t announce it from the 
housetops ! ” 

“ Nor am I doing so,” Elsie spoke quietly but 
with flashing eyes ; “ I will omit all personal re- 
marks, hereafter, but I must still insist upon my 
determination and my perseverance, — which, 
after all, are my stock in trade ! ” 

“ Good for you, Elsie,” and Whiting smiled at 
her. “ I’m with you, and we’ll never let up until 
we find the boy! Harbison, you’re in on this? ” 
“To a finish! Now, how do we begin? I’m 
all for looking up Courtney. It’s too much of a 
coincidence that he should want Kim out of the 
way, — and, immediately, Kim is out of the 
way ! Isn’t that a bit curious? ” 

“ It is, now you put it that way,” and Whiting 


A Haunted Room 


97 


looked visibly impressed. “ Let’s run him to 
cover first of all.” 

And then, the telephone bell rang, and De- 
tective Hanley informed them that Wallace 
Courtney had disappeared as suddenly and as 
inexplicably as Kimball Webb had himself! 

“ That settles it! ” declared Harbison, jumping 
up and grasping his hat. “ I’ve got to get in on 
the ground floor ! Good-bye, all ! ” 

He left the house hastily, and Fenn Whiting 
was eager to follow. But he spoke first to Elsie. 
“ Shall I go,” he asked, “ or stay with you? ” 

“ Go ! ” she cried, with shining eyes. “ At last, 
we’re beginning to do something! Go and find 
out all you can about Mr. Courtney, and report 
to me at my home. I’m going over there, — as 
soon as I have this matter out with Henrietta ! ” 


CHAPTER VII 


JOE ALLISON 

W ELL, I’m a red-blooded young American, 
and I’m not denying that a fortune of a 
few millions would come in mighty handy in my 
business ! ” 

The speaker was Joe Allison, and he was pay- 
ing his first call on the Powells. 

They liked him at once, for one could scarce 
help liking the breezy mannered light-hearted 
chap, and his frankness and straightforwardness 
won Elsie’s heart. 

“ Of course,” he went on, — they were talking 
of Miss Elizabeth Powell’s will, “ the whole thing 
is pretty ridiculous, — freak wills are, — but it’s 
none of my quarrel that she should run me in as 
an afterclap. You have the inside track, Cousin 
Elsie, — let me call you that, — but I have a right 
to feel an interest in your doings. And I’ve 
heard, — I may as well speak frankly, — I’ve heard 
it rumoured that you’re determined to marry no- 
body, — nobody in the world, — except Mr. Webb. 
Who is, I understand, unavailable for the 
moment.” 

“ That’s all true, — ” Elsie admitted, but Gerty 
spoke up : 

“ Only true in part, Mr. Allison.” 

“ Oh, call me Joe. I’m not really related, but 

98 


Joe Allison 


99 


it makes me feel good to be connected in any way 
with the Powell money.” 

“ I fear you’ve a mercenary spirit,” said Mrs. 
Powell, smiling at the boyish face. 

“No more so than the average man. I’m no 
dollar-grabber, but when I’m up against a pos- 
sible inheritance, I want to know how strong a 
probability there is.” 

“ A decidedly strong one, Joe,” Elsie said, 
looking at him, but Gerty again interrupted. 

“ Don’t take her too seriously,” she begged. 
“ Elsie doesn’t realize her own position. And 
there’s considerable time yet for her to come to a 
true sense of things as they are, — ” 

“And time to find the missing man,” sug- 
gested Joe, cheerfully. “ I am not going to pre- 
tend I don’t want to be the old lady’s heir, for I 
do, — but not at the expense of Elsie’s happiness. 
I’ve known you less than half an hour, Cousin 
Elsie, but, by George, I’m for you ! ” 

“ Why? ” said Elsie, with a real curiosity. 

“ First, because you’re so pretty ; second, be- 
cause you’re so plucky; and third, because the 
whole thing is so much of a gamble, — it would 
be an awful pity for you to lose out, — even if it 
would be nuts for me ! ” 

“You’re a good sort, Joe; and, truly, if Kim- 
ball Webb never reappears, and you inherit Aunt 
Elizabeth’s money, I’ll be glad for you — ” 


100 The Disappearance of Kimball Webb 

“ Come, come, Elsie,” said her mother, 
pettishly, “ that’s all right in Sunday-school 
books, and Uplift pamphlets, but we live in a 
practical world, and I don’t propose to let you 
do yourself the injustice of losing your rightful 
fortune for a bit of misplaced sentiment. You’re 
young, — too young to realize what it would 
mean to you to go through life alone and poor. 
And that’s what your life will be if you refuse to 
marry any one except Kimball. You must know 
that he may never return. Of course it is pos- 
sible that he will, — but he may not. And in 
that case, I shall insist on your marrying some 
other good and worthy man, — if only for the 
sake of your financial well-being in the future.” 

“And that of your family,” added Allison, 
sagaciously, quite sensing the undercurrent of 
Mrs. Powell’s thoughts. 

“ That, too,” she admitted. “ Elsie knows 
that our happiness depends upon her course in 
the matter. Gerty’s husband, a well-to-do 
lawyer, was killed in action; for myself, I am 
practically penniless. It is, therefore, Elsie’s 
duty to sacrifice herself to some extent for those 
dependent on her. I am an invalid, Gerty has 
the care and support of two tiny children, and I 
am sure we are not unduly selfish in our atti- 
tude.” 

“ And it isn’t,” Gerty took up the tale, “ as if 
we were asking anything wrong or unusual of 


Joe Allison 


101 


Elsie. There is some time yet for her to look 
around and choose among her various suitors, — 
and she has lots of them, — ” 

“ Naturally,” said Allison, dryly. 

“ Oh, I don’t mean fortune-hunters ! There 
are plenty of men who love Elsie for herself 
alone. And they are first class, desirable men, 
who would make delightful husbands.” 

“ Gerty, you give me the shivers ! ” exclaimed 
Elsie. “ I’m merely an investment, it would 
seem ! I can tell you, Mr. Allison, — Joe, — I do 
not propose to marry somebody in order to secure 
a fortune for my people ! I am fond of them, I 
will work for them, but I refuse to sell myself 
for them ! ” 

“ Fine talk, Cousin Elsie,” the young man 
said, smiling, “ but you won’t last out. Let me 
see, Mr. Webb has been missing three days now, — 
isn’t it? ” 

“ Yes; three days, now.” 

“ And you have three months in which to find 
him, — you see I know the main facts. Well, I 
hate to be discouraging, but I don’t believe you’ll 
ever see that man again, — and you may as well 
begin to pick his successor.” 

“ I started out by liking you, Joe, but you’ve 
changed my attitude,” Elsie exclaimed, her 
cheeks flushing with anger. “ How can you 
speak like that? ” 

“Fm a hardheaded Westerner, Elsie, and I 


102 The Disappearance of Kimball Webb 

look things square in the face. It’s out of all 
thinking that Webb was kidnapped! Such 
things aren’t done! And, too, how could it be 
possible? ” 

“ How could his departure be possible, any- 
way? ” 

“ Far easier, if he went of his own accord, than 
if he were forced to go against his will. In fact, 
my girl, you must see that he couldn’t have been 
taken unwillingly. Granting the mystery of the 
locked room, it can be, — it must be explained in 
some way, — but, only if Webb went away of his 
own volition. You must see that? ” 

“ I do,” declared Gerty, “ and Elsie does too, 
only she won’t admit it.” 

“ I don’t,” Elsie denied ; “ but I refuse to dis- 
cuss the subject at all. I find it does no good. 
Nothing does any good! Here, three days have 
passed; a detective has done his best, — and it 
amounted to nothing at all ! Two of my friends, 
— Mr. Whiting and Mr. Harbison have done 
their best, — and it has amounted to nothing at 
all ; Kimball’s mother and sister have done their 
best — ” 

“ Are you sure of them?” Allison broke in; 
“ I mean, are you sure they are hunting him, — 
or, are they foxy enough — ” 

He paused and looked from one to another to 
guess their attitude toward the Webb ladies. 

“ I don’t think they know anything more about 


Joe Allison 


103 


Kimball than I do,” said Elsie, slowly. “ I did 
think Henrietta engineered the whole thing, — 
and I had reason to think so, — I still have, — 
but, not enough to make me feel sure of it.” 

“ Fm keen on the mystery part of it,” said 
Allison. “ I’ve a fondness for mystery and I’d 
like to know just how Mr. Webb did get out of 
that room, — that is, if it was as securely locked 
as the stories made it out.” 

“ Oh, it was ; ” Elsie nodded her head, posi- 
tively. “ That is, if Henrietta’s story is true. 
And it must be, for she couldn’t make all the 
servants stick to a made-up tale, after all the 
grilling they’ve been through by the detectives 
and by all of us. Yes, I do believe that Hollis 
and Oscar, — they’re the two men servants, — 
broke in, just as they say they did.” 

“ Then it’s the mystery of the century ! ” young 
Allison exclaimed. “ I’m going to take a hand 
at it ! ” 

Elsie smiled with an indulgent air. “ All 
right, Joe, go ahead. But, the very simplicity of 
it all is the baffling part. Door and windows 
fastened on the inside, and the man gone, with 
no trace of how he got out, where he went to, or 
where he is now.” 

“ Can you beat it? ” and Allison’s round face 
fairly glowed with interest. “ No secret pas- 
sage? ” 

“ No; everybody’s tried to find one, but there’s 


104 The Disappearance of Kimball Webb 

no unexplained space in the walls, or between 
partitions, or anything of the sort. Mr. Whiting 
is an architect, and he showed the police detective 
how he could see there is no chance for any secret 
exit. The walls are intact and solid, — oh, I 
don’t know how to express it, but there’s abso- 
lutely no chance of a sliding panel or secret stair- 
case or passage.” 

“ Makes it still more interesting. What 
theories have been suggested? ” 

“ Nothing definite, except Kimball’s mother’s 
idea that spirits wafted him away ! ” 

“ Oh, I don’t mean idiotic talk, like that ! Is 
the maternal Webb a Spookist? ” 

“ Of the deepest dye. She really believes 
Kimball was carried bodily through a closed 
door — ” 

“ Don’t waste time on that. What does the 
detective think?” 

“ Can’t think of anything, — that fits all con- 
ditions. But he says Kimball must have gone 
away purposely, and, in some unexplained 
fashion, locked the door after him.” 

“ Street door open? ” 

“ No; locked and bolted as usual.” 

“ Beautiful case ! Finest mystery I ever 
heard of ! I’m going to imperil my chance at the 
fortune and try to get your man back for you ! ” 
“ That’s nice of you, Joe, but I wish I had 
more hope of your success.” Elsie’s disconso- 


Joe Allison 


105 


late face did not brighten at her cousin’s offer. 

“ Look here, Elsie ; what say to offering a re- 
ward? Make a nice big sum, — contingent on 
the restoration of your lover, — and then if I can 
find him for you, I lose the fortune, — but I get 
the prize money.” 

“ Oh, I’ll do that, J oe ! Gladly. How much 
shall I make it? Ten thousand dollars? ” 

“ No; fifty thousand. You see, I want a slice 
of the money and, — to be honest, — I don’t think 
you’d let the fortune slip for want of a bride- 
groom.” 

“ Indeed she won’t ! ” cried Gerty. “ She’ll 
see reason before the thirtieth of June! ” 

“That’s what I think,” agreed Joe; “so, 
Cousin Elsie, you’ll never miss fifty thousand 
from your millions, and it’ll do me a power of 
good ! ” 

“ You haven’t solved the mystery yet,” said 
Elsie, but her face had brightened at the mere 
idea of Joe’s success. 

“ Then, if I don’t, you won’t have to pay me.” 

“Also,” said Mrs. Powell, “if some one else 
wins the reward — ” 

“ That’s all right,” said J oe, casually. “ If so, 
Elsie’ll be mighty glad to pay it ! ” 

“ Of course I will ! I’d pay it to anybody who 
will restore my lover ! ” 

“And a good investment, too; the retmrn ©f 
the man means the assurance of the money.” 


106 The Disappearance of Kimball Webb 

Fenn Whiting did not altogether approve of 
the plan of a reward. 

When he came to see Elsie, after Allison had 
left the house, he advised against it. 

“ You see, dear,” he said, “ it is all right to 
offer the money to your cousin, but the lure of a 
big reward will attract all sorts and conditions 
of men, and you’ll get involved in devious 
bothers.” 

“ Such as what? ” demanded Elsie. “ I don’t 
care who gets the money if Kimball is found. 
You know, Fenn, Kim must be somewhere ! I 
don’t for a minute believe he is dead, do you? ” 
“No; there’s no reason to think that. Who 
would have any motive for killing him? — that 
is, — except, — oh, Elsie, can’t you see an inch in 
front of your nose? The only one with a pos- 
sible motive for taking Kim away from you is 
that precious cousin of yours, — though why you 
call him cousin, I don’t know.” 

“ Joe Allison ! Why, Fenn, if you saw that 
boy, you’d never associate any wrong doing with 
him ! He’s the frankest, most honest — ” 

“ Elsie ! how innocent you are ! Surely, child, 
you must have intelligence, — if not experience 
enough to see that a scamp would assume honesty 
and frankness of demeanour — ” 

“ But you haven’t seen Joe ! ” 

“No matter. I know he’s the only one with a 
motive, — if we except Wally Courtney.” 


Joe Allison 


107 


“ Haven’t they found him yet? ” 

“No; but they’re on his trail. He is hiding 
somewhere, but I don’t believe he’s responsi- 
ble for Kim’s disappearance. How could he 
be?” 

“ He could be, — as well as any one else. How 
could anybody be the means of, — and yet some- 
body was ! ” 

“ Nobody but Kim himself, — Elsie. The 
method of his disappearance is still a mystery, 
but a motive for any one is more dubious still. I 
merely mentioned this Allison, but after all, I 
can’t believe he came here to New York from 
Chicago, got into a strange house, abducted a 
strong, able-bodied man, and spirited him away, 
leaving the doors locked behind him! Your 
theory of Miss Webb’s connivance is more 
plausible than that ! ” 

“ You mix me all up, Fenn ! I thought at first 
you suspected Joe.” 

“ I suspect no one, because, as yet, I’ve found 
no real motive. But this Allison can be said to 
have a motive, — and still, my reason won’t let 
me suspect him. We’re all of us at sea, Elsie. 
We all speculate, and wonder and assume, — 
then, when it comes to a positive suspicion, we 
can’t find a logical one.” 

“ Then I am sure I’m right in offering a re- 
ward, — and a big one. You see, if Kim isn’t 
found in time, I won’t have to pay it, — and if he 


108 The Disappearance of Kimball Webb 

is found, I shall marry him at once and so have 
plenty of money to pay it ! ” 

“ You mean, make the payment contingent on 
his restoration before your birthday ? ” 

“ Of course. I shall never marry any one 
else. Fll wait for ever for him. If he never 
comes back to me, I shall never marry. If he 
comes after my birthday, — then Joe Allison will 
have the money and I will be a poor girl.” 

“ How foolish you are, Elsie ! ” 

“ You think so? ” 

“ No, dear, not really. I appreciate your loyal 
love, and I know you can’t dream of marrying 
another man. But, — you may change your mind 
later. And, remember, Elsie, I have always 
loved you. I’m not asking you to marry me, 
now ; but if Kim doesn’t return before your birth- 
day, and if the money goes to Allison, and if 
you’re, as you say, a girl dependent on your own 
efforts, — for I suppose you wouldn’t accept an 
allowance from Allison? ” 

“ He hasn’t offered one, I never thought of 
such a thing ! Yes, I would accept it for mother 
and Gerty and the children! Notffor myself.” 

“ He wouldn’t make you any such allowance as 
your mother and Gerty would want. You know, 
Elsie, they are a bit mercenary.” 

“ You sha’n’t call them that ! They^ve always 
had lots of money, — they can’t get along without 
it. And Gerty isn’t strong, and mother is grow- 


Joe Allison 


109 


ing more of an invalid every day, and the chil- 
dren are expensive little things. Oh, Fenn, what 
can I do? I can’t see my people in want! And 
I can’t marry somebody just to get a fortune for 
them ! ” 

“ I’m in a sorry predicament^ dear, when I try 
to advise you; you know how I love you, — how 
long I have loved you. When I found you had 
chosen Kimball, I never obtruded my claims. 
But, now, — oh, Elsie, I can’t ask you to marry 
me to save the fortune! I’m not such a poor 
thing as that! But, if Allison gets the money, 
and if he will look after your mother and Gerty, 
won’t you, dearest, won’t you let me provide for 
you? I can’t offer to take the whole family, — 
I’m not a rich man, — but I love you so, — dear, — 
and all I can say is, that you must remember my 
only wish is to serve you, — in any way. Com- 
mand me anything, — anything, Elsie ! ” 

“ Very well, Fenn, find Kimball for me.” 

“ I’ll do my best, dear. If I don’t succeed, 
you’ll know I tried.” 

“ You’re a good friend, Fenn ; and I’ll say this. 
I shall never — never marry any other man but 
my Kim, but I like you best of all my friends, 
and I depend on you most of all to help me.” 

“ You may, Elsie. Now, are you determined 
to offer this reward? ” 

“ Oh, yes ; and if you win it — ” 

“Don’t! dear heart, you don’t know how yom 


110 The Disappearance of Kimball Webb 

hurt me! Do you think for a minute I’d take 
it?” 

“ I don’t see why not, if you earn it, by re- 
storing Kim to me.” 

“ Well, don’t let’s speak of reward ! To give 
you happiness is all the reward I shall ask. I 
don’t want pay for that ! ” 

A visitor was announced, and in another 
minute Joe Allison entered the room. 

“ Oh, Elsie,” he cried ; “ I’m finding out things ! 
Beg pardon, I thought you were alone.” 

Elsie introduced the two men, and Joe fa- 
voured Fenn Whiting with a long steady glance. 

“ How do you do? ” he said ; “ I’m glad to meet 
you, Mr. Whiting, for lots of reasons.” 

“ Thank you,” said Whiting ; “am I to know 
them ? ” 

“You bet. But, I say, you’re in with us on 
this deal? ” 

“ Rather ! Still, I’d like to know more of your 
ideas of what the deal is.” 

“ Oh, yes ; sure. I mean this notion of Elsie’s 
offering a reward for the return of her missing 
man.” 

“ Don’t speak of it so — so bluntly, Joe,” Elsie 
urged. 

“ I side with Miss Powell,” Whiting said ; 
“ seems to me, Mr. Allison, the matter might be 
put more delicately.” 

“ Oh, all right. But I’m a blunt man, — 


Joe Allison 111 

Westerners have that rep. Anyway, I’m keen 
on the scent.” 

“ What have you found out? ” cried Elsie. 

“ I’ve found that Mr. Courtney, for one thing.” 

“ Where is he? ” exclaimed Whiting and Elsie, 
too. 

“ He’s practically in hiding, but not for con- 
cealment at all; merely to get a chance to work 
in peace, I take it.” 

“ Where is he? ” insisted Whiting. 

“ He’s staying with a Miss Lulie Lloyd, — only 
she won’t admit it.” 

“ Lulie Lloyd ! ” Elsie cried ; “ why, she’s Kim’s 
stenographer.” 

“ Yep ; I found that out, too. Well, Miss Lloyd 
has an apartment of her own, — lives there with 
her mother, — if it is her mother, — and I believe 
for the present, Mr. Wallace Courtney is making 
his abode there also.” 

“ What’s he doing there? ” 

“ Working like mad on his play! ” 

“ Oh, then he did steal Kim away ! ” and 
Elsie’s eyes grew wide with glad surprise. “ If 
that’s so, we can soon get Kim back ! I hoped it 
was Mr. Courtney, but I couldn’t believe it ! ” 

“ I can’t believe it yet,” put in Whiting. 
“ How did you get all this, Mr. Allison? ” 

“ Just by nosing around. I found out that 
Miss Lloyd had been Mr. Webb’s stenographer, 
and I went to see her — ” 


112 The Disappearance of Kimball Webb 

“ Why? ” 

“ Just to quiz her, and maybe find out a thing 
or two. You know a stenographer is often a 
mine of information regarding her employer, — 
whether she lets go of it or not.” 

“And did she?” Whiting was agog with in- 
terest. 

“ She did not ! She has the tightest closed pair 
of lips that ever felt a lipstick! She told me 
just about nothing. But — I caught on to some 
points ! I’ll say I did ! ” 

“ Go on,” said Elsie, breathlessly, “ what about 
Kim?” 

“ Nothing about him, — nothing at all. But 
it’s my belief she has Mr. Courtney there, — in 
her place, — because of her — well, because of a 
lot of things I saw.” 

“ You went there? ” 

“ I did. And Miss Lloyd so little expected 
any inquisitive intruders that I caught her 
utterly unprepared. I rather rudely brushed 
past the maid, who was taking my card to the 
lady, and I entered the room just as an inner 
door closed behind a hurried departure of some- 
body. I only deduce that somebody was Mr. 
Wallace Courtney, for these reasons. First, 
there was a definite odour of good cigar smoke in 
the room. Second, there were papers and note- 
books scattered about a desk, — whose chair was 
pushed aside as if just vacated by its occupant. 


Joe Allison 


113 


Third, Miss Lloyd, herself, who rose hastily from 
her typewriter table, was exceedingly flustered 
and absurdly angry at my intrusion.” 

“ Hadn’t she a right to be? ” asked Whiting, a 
little severely, for he did not approve of the young 
man’s easy-going ways. 

“ Sure she had ! I fully expected it. Well, I 
simply said, 4 Where’s Mr. Courtney gone? ’ and 
she did the high and mighty, 4 1 don’t know what 
you mean, sir ! 9 with a loud exclamation point 
after the 4 sir ! 9 And then with the usual tragedy 
queen gag, she pointed to the door. But I had 
caught on to the dope I was after, and casually 
picking up a few sheets of the copy she had just 
written, I saw it was a play, and I saw the char- 
acters in said play, were named. 4 Mrs. 
Saltonstall, Mr. Cabot and Miss Adams.’ I 
glanced at the notes on the abandoned desk hard 
by, and found the same names scribbled there. 
To make assurance sure, I helped myself to a 
page of the scribblement, and came away. That 
was all I did there. Then I went to the Work- 
ers’ Club , and somehow or other I wormed myself 
in, and I managed to get the information from a 
friend of Mr. Courtney’s that the page of 
scribbled notes is in his handwriting and that 
Mr. Courtney’s play included the characters 
named as I have hereinbefore enumerated ! 
That’s about all.” 

44 And enough ! ” cried Whiting. 44 Man, you’re 


114 The Disappearance of Kimball Webb 

a wonder ! Courtney is there, of course — ” 
“ And I see farther into it than you do ! ” Elsie 
exclaimed ; “ that Lulie Lloyd is giving Mr. 
Courtney all the points of Kim’s play! She’s 
Kim’s stenographer, you know ! ” 


CHAPTER VIII 


COURTNEY’S TALK 

W HEN Elsie arrived at Lulie Lloyd’s home, 
that young woman greeted her most 
pleasantly. 

“ I came to see Mr. Courtney,” Elsie said, 
briefly, looking about. 

“ Here I am, Miss Powell,” and Wallace 
Courtney came in from the next room. 

“ I was told you were here, — in hiding ! ” 
Elsie exclaimed, excitedly. 

“ In retreat, not in hiding,” Courtney cor- 
rected her. “ I am exceedingly busy, and in 
order to work uninterruptedly, I’ve set up an 
office in this house, and Miss Lloyd is helping 
me.” 

“ But you’re Mr. Webb’s stenographer,” and 
Elsie turned on the girl. 

“ I know it, Miss Powell,” she said, goodi 
naturedly, “ but Mr. Webb is away, and nobody 
knows when he’ll come back, so I thought I had a 
right to take another position.” 

“ Of course she has,” defended Courtney. 
“ But tell me, Miss Powell, have you any news 
of the missing man? ” 

“ How can I have, unless you give it to me? ” 
“ Meaning? ” 

“Meaning that I think you are in some way 

115 


116 The Disappearance of Kimball Webb 

responsible for his disappearance! I think you 
feared his play would clash with your own, and 
in some clever manner you contrived to hide him 
somewhere until too late to interfere with you.” 

“What an idea! Miss Powell, you give me 
credit, then, for supernatural cleverness, for I 
must say, from what I’ve heard, the hiding of 
Kimball Webb, — if he is hidden, — is a master- 
piece of ingenuity!. How, may I ask, do you 
think I did it? ” 

“ I haven’t the least idea, but I know nobody 
else had any interest in his removal; and now 
that you’ve gone to work at your play with such 
energy, and have availed yourself of Mr. Webb’s 
stenographer, which must be very advantageous, 
I’ve no further doubt that you did the outrageous 
thing! When do you propose to liberate him? ” 

“ Not having him in custody, I can’t answer 
that question. And, I tell you frankly, Miss 
Powell, your suspicions are so utterly absurd I 
decline to refute them. If you choose to think I 
abducted Kimball Webb, you are at liberty to 
do so, but until you can produce some proof or 
some indicative evidence, I have no call to de- 
fend myself. Also, I am willing to admit that 
I’m glad he’s gone! I wish no harm to Webb, 
he’s a friend of mine, but his play put the kibosh 
on my hopes, and now that I have a chance at 
success, I’m taking it ! As to Miss Lloyd, she is a 
first-class stenographer and more. She is a real 


Courtney’s Talk 


117 


help in knowing all about Webb’s play. Not that 
I mean to plagiarize, — on the contrary, Miss 
Lloyd can tell me his points, and I shall take 
care to avoid using them.” 

“ You are exceedingly clever, Mr. Courtney,” 
Elsie looked at him curiously, “ especially so in 
the attitude you take regarding Kim ! I believe 
you got him away, — somehow, — and that you 
will not give him up until you are ready. How 
you did it, I can’t imagine, but I shall find out, 
and I shall have you punished! There is, — 
there must be a law that will reach you, and 
you’ll have a worse fate than the failure of a 
play ! ” 

“ Whew ! Miss Powell, you take my breath 
away ! If I were afraid of anybody in this mat- 
ter, I should certainly fear you! You have en- 
terprise and persistence to a marked degree. 
But, I’m not afraid of you, go ahead with your 
investigation of my criminal career, and let me 
know your results. You have the police back of 
you, I suppose? ” 

“ I think you’re perfectly horrid, Mr. Court- 
ney! Haven’t you a particle of sympathy for 
me? Don’t you think I am in the depths of 
misery at the loss of the man I love? ” 

“ Oh, he isn’t lost, Miss .Powell. Whatever 
the reason for his disappearance, — and I could 
suggest several of them, — his absence is but 
temporary.” 


118 The Disappearance of Kimball Webb 

“ You’re very sure ! So sure, that I am more 
than ever convinced that you’re behind the crime, 
• — for it is a crime ! ” 

“ Fasten it on me, then,” retorted Courtney, 
cheerfully ; “ I deny it, but if it’s proven on me, 
I’ll admit it!” 

“ Of course you will! You’ll have to! And 
I’ll get it proved, all right ! Miss Lloyd, be care- 
ful. You know how Mr. Webb trusted you, you 
know all the ins and outs of his work, you must 
know that you reveal his secrets at your 
peril — ” 

“ Oh, wait a minute, Miss Powell,” Courtney 
broke in ; “ cut out the dramatics. Miss Lloyd is 
a stenographer, and she has a right to work for 
any one she chooses. If her previous employer 
returns and calls her to account for taking an- 
other position, that’s one thing. But until he 
does so, no one else has a right to question her 
course.” 

“ That’s right, Miss Powell,” said Lulie Lloyd. 
“ But, anyway, don’t you fear I’ll do anything 
wrong. As Mr. Courtney says, anything I can 
tell him regarding Mr. Webb’s play is by way of 
caution against plagiarism, not the means of 
bringing it about.” 

“ I don’t believe a word of that ! ” and Elsie’s 
little nose went up scornfully. “ I know per- 
fectly well Mr. Courtney will use the best of Mr. 
Webb’s ideas, and will so change and rewrite 


Courtney’s Talk 


119 


them that he can claim them as his own. I may 
be baffled but I’m not fooled ! ” 

The brown eyes swept coldly over the flushed 
face of the stenographer and then turned again 
to Courtney. 

“ I’ve no desire to discuss the matter further,” 
Elsie said, calmly, “ but I can tell you, Mr. 
Wallace Courtney, you’ll be sorry for what you 
have done. This is not the age of bandits and 
pirates ! Citizens cannot be secretly taken from 
their homes with impunity! You are the man 
with the motive for desiring the disappearance 
of Kimball Webb, and so you are the man 
who brought about that disappearance. And 
I shall see to it that you get your just de- 
serts.” 

Elsie turned on her heel, and started for the 
door. 

“ Just a moment, Miss Powell,” said Courtney, 
and she turned. 

“Do listen to me, for your own sake,” he 
urged ; “ I didn’t steal your lover away from you, 
— but, though you will doubtless scorn it, I’d 
like to give you a hint.” 

“You can’t divert my attention from you in 
that way ! ” Elsie declared, but she waited for 
further words. 

“ I daresay not ; still, it ought to interest you 
to know that Kimball was looking for something 
queer to happen.” 


120 The Disappearance of Kimball Webb 

“ Can you prove that, other than by your own 
statement? ” 

“ So you won’t believe anything I say! Well, 
listen, anyway. We were talking recently at the 
Club about spiritualism, — ” 

“ Oh, don’t harp on that! That’s Kim’s moth- 
er’s theory, — and of all ridiculous nonsenses! 
Why,—” 

“ Now, wait a minute. This was only two 
nights before his bachelor dinner. We were dis- 
cussing the foolishness of seances , and talking 
about the people who claim to have communica- 
tion with their relatives who were killed in the 
war, — and all that rot, — when Kim said, 
c There may be something in it after all.’ 

“ We laughed at him, and asked him if he had 
any experiences worth telling. And he said he’d 
had one the night before.” 

“ I don’t want to hear it. Either you’re de- 
ceiving me, or he was hoaxing you. Kim hates 
everything of the sort, — his mother will tell you 
that” 

“ It isn’t a question of his hating it, — he did, 
— but he told us a tale which I, for one, refuse 
to doubt. It bore evidence of its truth on its 
very face.” 

“ What was it?” Elsie became interested in 
spite of herself. 

“ It seems Kim has had a number of queer ex- 
periences happen to him while he slept. For in- 


Courtney’s Talk 


121 


stance, clothing that he left on one chair when he 
went to bed he found in the morning on another 
chair.” 

“ Pooh, he might have forgotten which chair he 
left the things on ! ” 

“ But it happened three times in succession. 
And his door was carefully locked each night. 
In fact, he said that’s why he formed the habit of 
locking and bolting it. He was not at all afraid, 
but his mother had talked about spirit perform- 
ances and he wanted to know what it all meant.” 

“ Is there any more of this rubbish?” Elsie 
asked. 

“ There is. The night I speak of, two nights 
before the dinner, — he told us this tale. He was 
lying in bed with the bedclothing drawn smoothly 
over him. He felt it slipping down as if it were 
being drawn off. He made no effort to hold it, 
nor to rise, as he was bent on waiting to see what 
would happen. Well, the sheet, blanket and 
counterpane, all, were drawn slowly, steadily 
and entirely off the bed and they fell in a heap 
on the floor.” 

“ I don’t believe it,” said Elsie, simply. 

“ You don’t have to. I’m merely repeating the 
story Kim told. Half a dozen fellows heard it, 
they’ll all tell you the same. Want their 
names? ” 

“ Not now. I may ask for them some time.” 

“All right. As soon as the clothes were all 


122 The Disappearance of Kimball Webb 

off, Kim sprang up, made a light, and investi- 
gated. There was no sign of any one about, — 
the door was locked as he had left it, and, he 
said, there was no other possible access to the 
room. Kim wasn’t afraid, but he was flabber- 
gasted. He asked us our opinion. You know 
what Poltergeist means? ” 

“ Oh, I know it’s some foolishness the Spirit- 
ualists babble about, — that snatches bedclothes 
off and clatters tin pans and that.” 

“ Yes; well, several of the men said it was Pol- 
tergeist.” 

“ Polter — fiddlesticks ! It was a nightmare, 
and you only tell the story to get me off the 
track.” 

“ Meaning the track of my own participation 
in the crime? ” 

“ Meaning just that ! ” 

“ Well, listen to this, then. One night about 
a week before the bedclothes affair, a diamond pin 
was stolen from Kimball Webb’s room.” 

“ A diamond pin ! ” 

“ Yes, a scarf pin. Small diamonds, set round 
a cat’s-eye. Not of great value, but an expensive 
little trinket. In that case, too, the door was 
locked and bolted on the inside.” 

“ Servants, I suppose. Why didn’t Kim report 
the theft to the police? ” 

“ He said he was too curious to find out how 
it was done.” 


123 


Courtney’s Talk 

“ Poltergeist don’t steal things.” 

“ Oh, yes, they do ; well, anyway, I wanted yon 
to know that there have been queer doings and 
they are not explicable by natural means. Kim- 
ball told of strange sounds, — groans and 
moans, — ” 

“ The same old stuff ! 99 

“ Yes, but Kim told it all as fact. I’ve no rea- 
son to doubt his word, — he’s never been a man 
given to big yarns, and he has a reputation for 
veracity. Do you doubt him? ” 

“ Kimball? No! But I believe these stories 
are embroidered, if not made up out of whole 
cloth! And I don’t want to hear any more of 
them.” 

But Elsie was not allowed to forget the stories. 

For, her next stopping place was at the Webb 
house, and she found the family there in a state 
of turmoil. 

Mrs. Webb’s declaration of her belief in the 
supernatural disappearance of Kimball, having 
been overheard by the chambermaid, the girl 
begged permission to tell what she knew about 
the room. 

“ It’s haunted,” she had told the W T ebb ladies. 
“ I know it is, for I’ve seen things the haunt 
done ! ” 

“ Tell what you know, J anet,” Henrietta said, 
severely, “but don’t exaggerate or colour your 
story in any way.” 


124 The Disappearance of Kimball Webb 

“ No, ma’am, I don’t need to. It’s this way. 
A few weeks ago, I went up to make up Mr. 
Kimball’s room, and when I opened the door, the 
room was full of smoke — ” 

“ Cigar smoke? ” asked Henrietta. 

“ Oh, no, ma’am. Smoke like from a fire.” 

“ Was there a fire in the grate? ” 

“ No, ma’am, and no sign of one. Why, there 
hasn’t been a fire there since winter time. But 
the smoke didn’t come from the fireplace, exactly, 
— it was sort of around the room, — and a smell 
like that of fresh kindled wood.” 

“ You could imagine the odour, Janet,” de- 
murred Henrietta. 

“ No, ma’am, I didn’t. It was too strong for 
that. You know, ma’am, there’s no smell like 
that of a fresh wood fire.” 

“ And no ashes or burnt wood in the fire- 
place? ” 

“ No, ma’am; it was clean as clean.” 

“You see, Henrietta,” said her mother; “ Pol- 
tergeist is the only thing that explains that. 
They carry fire about as easily as we carry 
water.” 

“ I don’t want to believe it,” said Henrietta, 
slowly, — “it’s too absurd, — but Janet has al- 
ways been a truthful girl — ” 

“Oh, it’s the truth I’m telling, miss,” Janet 
avowed, “and I was that scared I never men- 
tioned it to nobody.” 


Courtney’s Talk 


125 


“ That’s like Janet, too,” observed Mrs. Webb; 
“ she’s very close-mouthed. But you should 
have told us.” 

“ I thought I would, ma’am, and I feared you’d 
laugh at me. I never supposed any harm would 
come of it. And now the little men have carried 
oft Mr. Kimball ! ” The girl broke into tears and 
ran from the room. 

“ The little men?” said Mrs. Webb, wonder- 
ingly. 

“ That’s what they call any supernatural 
force,” said Henrietta; “here comes Elsie, let’s 
tell her about it.” 

It was at that juncture that Elsie appeared, 
and as the Webbs told the story of Janet’s experi- 
ences, she told what Wallace Courtney had told 
her. 

“ There’s no doubt at all,” said Mrs. Webb, 
with a strange mixed feeling of satisfaction at 
having her own theory gain ground, and a shock 
of desolation at the loss of her son. 

Elsie looked at her in amazement. 

“ Mrs. Webb,” she said, slowly, “ do you really 
mean that you think Poltergeist, or any super- 
normal power removed him bodily, and took him 
out of his locked room, and is keeping him con- 
cealed somewhere? ” 

“ Of course I do ! ” 

“ How are they keeping him alive? ” 

“ I don’t know that he is alive.” 


126 The Disappearance of Kimball Webb 

“ And you are willing to believe such rubbish? 
You — ’ ” 

“ It does no good, Elsie,” interrupted Hen- 
rietta, “ to talk to mother like that. You’ve no 
right to scorn her beliefs, — she is a confirmed 
spiritualist, and as such, she is entitled to a re- 
spectful consideration, whether or not you agree 
with her beliefs.” 

“ That’s so, Henrietta, and I apologize. But it 
seems incredible that a sensible woman can stand 
for that sort of foolishness ! Dear Mrs. Webb, I 
beg you to forgive me, I don’t mean to be rude, 
but — oh, I’m so crazy to find Kimball, I’m not 
myself! I’m going to devote my life to it, I’m 
going to try every means I can think of and then 
make up more, but I’ll find him yet! You see, I 
start out by assuming that he didn’t go away vol- 
untarily, — you know he wouldn’t do that! On 
our wedding day ! ” 

Henrietta said no word, but a slight sound of 
disagreement that could be faintly heard made 
Elsie turn to her. She was amazed at the look 
of hatred on Henrietta’s face. 

“ Why,” she cried, “ you look as if you could 
eat me, Henrietta! Now, look here, even if you 
don’t like me very much, I’m your brother’s 
promised wife, and so I shall remain until I’m 
his wife in fact. You can’t change that, — and 
though I don’t think, — now, — that you spirited 
Kim away, — yet I did think so, — and if you 


127 


Courtney’s Talk 

look like that, I may come back to that opinion ! ” 

“ Your opinions don’t interest me, Elsie, and 
though I shouldn’t have chosen you for Kimball’s 
wife, yet I am just enough to treat properly the 
woman he himself selected for that honour.” 

“All right, why don’t you begin to treat me 
properly, then? For, if you ask me, I don’t think 
you’ve done so yet ! ” 

Henrietta scorned to reply, save by a disdain- 
ful look. 

“ And now,” Elsie went on, “ I’m going up in 
Kimball’s room to look around a bit. I’m no de- 
tective, but then Hanley isn’t one, either, not a 
real one. I suppose he does all he can, but I’ve 
been told that hunting a ‘ missing person,’ is 
about as slow a process as that of ward in chan- 
cery. Sometimes I think I’ll get a private detec- 
tive, a big one, who will find my Kimball and 
give him back to me.” 

“ My son will never be seen again,” declared 
Mrs. Webb, solemnly. 

“ I’m glad I’m not impressed by your dark 
views about it,” Elsie said, smiling at the old 
lady, whom she really liked, in spite of her ab- 
surd beliefs. 

Mrs. Webb was more kindly disposed toward 
Elsie than Henrietta, and Elsie responded grate- 
fully. 

“ You’ll change your mind,” she went on, to 
Mrs. Webb, “ when I make a triumphant rescue 


128 The Disappearance of Kimball Webb 

of my beloved. Oh,” she burst out, suddenly, 
“ don’t you feel sorry for me? Think, a bride, 
left alone on her wedding day ! ” 

“ A deserted — ” began Henrietta, but Elsie 
turned on her like a young tempest. 

“No! Not a deserted wife! My Kimball 
didn’t desert me, — and this minute, wherever he 
is, he is planning and striving to get back to me. 
That is, if he’s conscious, — and, I know he is! 
I’d die if I didn’t believe that ! ” 

She ran from the room and made her way up to 
Kimball’s room. 

It was no longer kept locked, and it had been 
swept and garnished, so that any clues, if there 
ever had been any, had been removed. 

“ But,” Elsie mused, sadly, “ how could there 
have been any clues? Clues to what?” She 
couldn’t believe an intruder had carried Kim off, 
for there was no possible way for an intruder to 
get in or out. What she really thought was that 
he had been lured away ; say somebody had tele- 
phoned him and he had gone off suddenly, or 
something like that. How he locked the door 
after him and the hall door, too, was a stumbling 
block, but she didn’t try to get over it. 

She wandered about the large, pleasant room. 
On the chiffonier was her own photograph in a 
silver frame. Scattered about were several 
trifles she had given him ; a paper-knife, a single 
flower vase, a calendar. 


Courtney’s Talk 129 

She looked in the scrap-basket, — it was 
empty. 

“ What am I looking for? ” she said, smiling 
to herself. “ I’ve read ,in detective stories how 
the sleuth ran about a room, like a hound on the 
scent, — always like a hound on the scent. But 
he had something to detect, — some criminal of 
whom to hunt traces. I don’t believe the 
criminal was here in this room, so there can 
be no clues. Unless a note called Kim away, — 
that might be ! ” 

She looked through the small writing case that 
lay on a table. But it held nothing but fresh sta- 
tionery, stamps and so forth. It looked as if it 
had never been used. 

“A present from somebody,” Elsie decided. 
“ Nobody ever uses ’em ! ” 

She glanced through some dresser drawers, but 
there was nothing out of order, nothing unusual, 
only the appointments of a man’s wardrobe. 

Idly, Elsie tapped at the walls. She had no 
knowledge as to what sort of a sound revealed a 
secret passage and what sort meant a solid wall. 
But other and wiser people had thoroughly tested 
that point, and one and all declared there wasn’t 
a chance of a secret or concealed exit from the 
room. 

And yet, Kimball had gone out of it, and had 
fastened the door behind him. Whether alone 
or accompanied, whether of his own volition or 


130 The Disappearance of Kimball Webb 

not, he had left the room that night, and had 
never been seen or heard of since. 

The very impossibility of the case made it 
weird. But no belief in supernatural forces took 
root in Elsie’s brain. 

“A clue,” she said to herself, over and over 
again. “ I must find a clue ! In books they 
search the floor, — I’ll search the floor.” 

She did, going over it on her hands and knees. 
But the careful sweeping it had received had ob- 
literated any footprints, — so beloved of writers 
of detective fiction ! and had also removed any of 
the conventional shreds of cloth, ravellings or 
any such oft found bits of evidence. 

However, the maid who did the sweeping was 
not entirely unique among her sort, for she had 
slighted her work when sweeping under the bed. 
There Elsie found some rolls of dust that would 
have roused Mrs. Webb’s ire had she known of 
their existence. 

Elsie smiled at the thought that not even New 
England aristocrats can always command serv- 
ice beyond reproach, and after scanning the rug, 
as far as she could see, she rose from her knees. 

One scrap caught her attention, and from be- 
neath the bed she picked up a tiny twisted thing. 

She carefully unfolded it, but it proved to be 
only a paper that had once contained a quill 
toothpick and that bore printed on it the name of 
a city restaurant. 


131 


Courtney’s Talk 

Mechanically she twirled it in her fingers until 
the flimsy thing was a mere wad, and then she 
threw it into the waste-basket. 

She lingered a moment at the chiffonier, sad- 
ness stealing over her heart as she looked at the 
prosaic, commonplace array of brushes and trays, 
and she felt a fresh pang as she noted the ab- 
sence of Kimball’s best things, which, like her 
own ivory set, were packed for the wedding 
trip! 

“ And we’ll go on that wedding trip yet ! ” 
Elsie vowed in her heart. “ I’m determined to 
find that man ! He never left me voluntarily, — 
either Henrietta or Wallace Courtney hid him 
somewhere, — somehow ! But I’ll find out 
where, and I’ll get him back. He’s mine , — my 
love, my own, and nobody shall take him from 
me ! ” 

She went down stairs, slowly, thinking deeply 
as she went. 

“ I’ve decided,” she announced, as she rejoined 
the Webb ladies, “ I’m going to get a detective, — 
the best one I can hear of, anywhere.” 

“ They’re very expensive,” Henrietta reminded 
her. 

“ I suppose that means you won’t shoulder any 
of the expense. Well, I’ll do it, then. My in- 
come will remain unchanged until my birthday, 
anyway, and I’ll use it all, if necessary, to get 
him back, — but I’ll get him back ! ” 


CHAPTER IX 


gerty’s plea 

B UT Elsie’s determination to get a special de- 
tective was not easily carried out. She 
visited several who were recommended to her by 
agencies, but none seemed sufficiently sure of 
success to make her willing to pay the large fees 
they demanded, irrespective of the outcome of 
their efforts. 

In fact none seemed anxious to take up the 
case. They deemed it too difficult to locate the 
missing man, for they held the opinion, that he 
had been hidden with his own consent or at his 
own request. 

One detective told Elsie plainly, that he had 
learned that Mr. Webb was entirely amenable 
to the advices of his mother and sister, and that 
as they so thoroughly disapproved of the mar- 
riage he contemplated, he had at last agreed to 
their views and had vanished the day of the pro- 
jected wedding. He politely expressed his per- 
sonal surprise at this state of things, and with 
an admiring glance at his would-be client, im- 
plied that, for his part, he didn’t see how Mr. 
Webb could have chosen more happily. 

Disgusted at his impertinence, Elsie left him, 
132 


133 


Gerty’s Plea 

and after a few more trials to find a detective 
who would take a real interest, aside from his 
financial reward, she gave up in despair. 

“ I thought it would be an easy matter to get 
a detective like they have in the stories,” she 
said to Gerty ; “ but they’re most of them stupid 
and indifferent.” 

“ Give up the idea that you’ll ever see Kim- 
ball again,” Gerty urged, “ that is, before your 
birthday. There’s not the slightest doubt that 
Henrietta is at the bottom of the whole affair. 
Nobody else could be. Nobody from outside 
could get into the house and get Kim away. 
Henrietta could, of course, and then all the mys- 
teries are explainable.” 

“ Explainable, how? ” 

“ Why, after he left the house, — to go wher- 
ever they planned for him to go, — Henrietta 
could lock the street door for him.” 

“ And his room door, — locked from the in- 
side? ” 

“ Oh, that yarn isn’t true. Henrietta made it 
all up. She bribed the servants to keep it quiet, 
and she made up the whole story. It couldn’t 
be, you know, that he really got out of those 
locked doors. Unless you’re going over to Mrs. 
Webb’s Spirit theory ! ” 

“ Good gracious, no ! But, she says she’s going 
to see a clairvoyant about Kimball, and she’ll 
find out the truth that way.” 


134 The Disappearance of Kimball Webb 

“ Poppycock ! Of course she could learn noth- 
ing, but if she could, she would have done so 
long ago. It’s nearly three weeks now since that 
he’s been gone, and nobody has done one thing 
toward finding him. That proves the Webbs 
did it. If he had been kidnapped or killed, the 
police would have found it out. But the Webbs 
can keep him hidden indefinitely; and they’re 
going to do it, until after your birthday.” 

“ If they’ll give him back to me then, — I’ll 
be glad ! ” 

“ Elsie, don’t talk like that. And, dear, I 
wish you would look at the matter sensibly. 
You can’t mean to give up five million dollars — 
for a mere bit of sentiment — ■” 

“ Don’t call my love for Kimball a mere 
bit of sentiment! You don’t know what love 
means — ” 

“ Don’t say that ! I guess if your husband had 
been killed in the war, you’d — ” 

“Killed in the war! That’s a glorious fate! 
Philip died honourably, fighting for his country, 
and you can be proud of him ! While I 
am not only deprived of my love, my mate, but 
I’ve no notion where he is, or what suffering 
he’s undergoing! Oh, Gerty, your sorrow is a 
great one, I know, but it’s nothing to mine ! ” 

“You talk like a silly girl! You can’t feel 
the same about a lover as I do about a husband 
and the father of my children! And you can 


135 


Gerty’s Plea 

marry some one else, — you can look on Kimball 
merely as a dear memory — ” 

“ You can marry some one else, too ! ” 

“No; my heart is buried in my husband’s 
grave. Elsie, dear sister, try to look at these 
things from a rational point of view. Try to 
realize that sad as your lot seems at present, 
there’s happiness ahead, if you choose to accept 
it. No young girl can so love a man to whom 
she’s not married as to be inconsolable at his 
loss.” 

“ I can,” Elsie persisted, “ and I do. And 
you can talk as long as you like, you'll never 
persuade me that I could know a happy moment 
if I married any one else ! ” 

“ Then, dear, don’t you think you ought to sac- 
rifice yourself for mother’s sake? She is so 
ill,— ” 

“ One word for mother and two for yourself ! 
You don’t fool me, Gerty, not for a minute! 
You want me to marry because if I don’t we’ll 
lose Aunt Elizabeth’s money! Why not speak 
out and say so ! ” 

“Very well, I do, then! And it’s quite as 
much for your sake as for mine! You don’t 
know what it will mean to leave this place to 
live in some little cramped flat, and to work for 
your living, — unless, indeed, you think of de- 
pending on Joe Allison for charity? ” 

“ I don’t, — you know I don’t ! But I’d work 


136 The Disappearance of Kimball Webb 

myself into my grave before Fd marry a man I 
didn’t love! I can’t even think about it — it 
makes me so indignant that you can suggest it ! ” 

“ That’s the natural feeling, dear, but your 
case is so different from most girls’. Try to 
see it clearly. The income of five millions and 
all the comfort that means, against the sufferings 
and discomforts that poverty brings. And think 
not only of yourself, but of mother — ” 

“ Yes! and Gerty; Gerty first, last and all the 
time ! ” 

“ Then, all I have to say is, — you’re a very 
selfish girl.” 

The discussions always wound up like this. 
Gerty took occasion nearly every day to repeat 
her accusations of selfishness, to impress on Elsie 
her duty to her invalid mother; to refer to her 
own two little children and her own inability 
to do any work, having the care of them; and 
eternally did she harp on the fact that since 
Elsie had not been married to Webb, her grief 
was merely a temporary regret for a man to 
whom she had been engaged, which, Gerty held, 
was an episode that might occur in any girl’s 
life. 

None of the arguments had any weight with 
Elsie, except the charge of selfishness. She was 
not selfish : she had always given lavishly of her 
wealth to her family and to her friends and to 


137 


Gerty’s Plea 

various charities. There was not a selfish im- 
pulse in Elsie Powell’s soul. And here was a 
very strong sense of duty and of obligation to 
her own people. 

She did not go so far as to think of marrying 
any one but Kimball, — that determination was, 
as yet, unshakable, — but she tried with all her 
might to think of some other way out. 

Yet there was none. She had been to see one 
of the trustees, who had her aunt’s estate in 
charge, and he had declared there was no pos- 
sible loophole. If Elsie was not married when 
she became twenty-four years old, the entire 
property would revert to Joe Allison. 

“ A pretty hard place that young man’s in ! ” 
said Mr. Thorne, the trustee ; “ he naturally has 
no ill feelings toward you, but if he’s human he 
can’t help wishing he might inherit all the money. 
So, he’s doubtless breathlessly awaiting devel- 
opments, and every day that passes without any 
word from Kimball Webb brings Allison one day 
nearer to his inheritance. I suppose you’ve told 
him of your decision not to marry any one 
else? ” 

“ Oh, yes,” said Elsie, “ I’ve told everybody of 
that. I thought if the Webbs were made to 
believe that, they might give up and let Kimball 
come back.” 

“ Why do you think they know where he is? ” 


138 The Disappearance of Kimball Webb 

“ Who else could know? And if they find out 
that I shall marry him when he does return, they 
may think that he might better marry a rich 
girl than a poor one.” 

“ They have no desire for money,” Mr. Thorne 
remarked. “ I live next door to the Webbs, 
I’ve known them for years, and they’re among 
the few people I know who really and honestly 
scorn money. They think great wealth is vulgar, 
and though they require and have enough to live 
very comfortably, they’ve absolutely no desire 
for more.” 

“ I know that,” Elsie sighed. “ And I’m not 
so awfully keen for money myself, — not at all, 
compared to love and happiness ! But I’ve 
people dependent on me. That is, my mother 
and my sister and her children have no home 
except what I give them from my inheritance. 
And if I give that up, what can we all do? ” 

“ That’s a grave question, my dear, and if 
you’ll listen to my advice, I suggest that you 
marry before your birthday. You’ll be glad in 
after years that you did so, even though you 
dread the idea just now.” 

“ Everybody says the same thing,” Elsie 
rose to go ; “ but I’m not obliged to take the ad- 
vice. I think I can trust Mr. Allison to provide 
for my mother, and Gerty can marry again. 
There’s no reason she shouldn’t marry for money, 
if it’s the thing for me to do ! ” 


139 


Gerty’s Plea 

“ That’s quite different, my dear. Mrs. 
Seaman is a widow, and her husband’s memory 
is too dear to her — ” 

“ Oh, hush ! I get so tired of that argument ! 
Let me tell you, Kimball Webb’s memory is as 
dear to me as if he had been my husband for 
a thousand years ! And I shall never marry any 
one else, — never ! ” 

Fenn Whiting continued to interest himself in 
the search for the missing Webb. He followed 
up the proceedings of the detective, Hanley, and 
brought reports, unsatisfactory as they were, to 
the Powell family. 

“ I feel embarrassed about it all,” Whiting 
said to Gerty, in Elsie’s absence, “ for, truly, 
I love Elsie enough to want her to get Webb 
back and marry him. But if he never turns up, 
— and I don’t believe he ever will, — I don’t 
mind telling you that I haven’t given up hope 
of yet winning Elsie for myself. But not before 
her birthday. I’m not a fortune-hunter, and 
rather than be thought so, I’d really rather take 
her without the money, than with it.” 

“ But it would mean so much to her,” de- 
murred Gerty. 

“ Yes, and to all of you. I’ve a good income, 
and it would be entirely at Elsie’s disposal, and 
I know her well enough to know how she would 
feel toward her family. But, my income isn’t a 


140 The Disappearance of Kimball Webb 

princely one, and so, the matter of the inheri- 
tance would be up to Elsie herself. I'd be thank- 
ful if she’d marry me, say in a year, or after 
she gives up her last hope of ever seeing Kimball 
again. Do you think she’d do that, Gerty? do 
you? ” 

Whiting was very much in earnest, and indeed, 
it was easy to believe in his great love for Elsie. 
He said little to her about it, but when in her 
presence he watched her with an expression of 
devotion that seemed all the greater for being 
untold. 

He was at the house one afternoon, when 
Elsie came in, bringing Joe Allison with her. 

Gerty opened the subject of the inheritance, 
making no secret of her opinion that Elsie ought 
to marry before her birthday. 

“ It’s hard on you, Joe,” she said, for they 
had all learned to like young Allison. “ But 
the fortune is rightfully Elsie’s, — Aunt Powell 
merely put in that alternative clause to make 
sure Elsie married. And but for Kimball’s 
strange absence all would have gone well, you 
wouldn’t even have thought about being a mil- 
lionaire.” 

“That’s so,” and Joe smiled, grimly. “But, 
I say, the thought that I may be one, has taken 
hold of me. I’m only human, after all, and I’d 
like a fortune as well as the next one! Oh, I 
suppose it w r ould be moi*e noble to say I don’t 


141 


Gerty’s Plea 

want it, — and all that, — but I do. That is, if 
it comes to me squarely. I want Elsie to get her 
man back, and be happy. Or, I want her to 
marry some other man — if she wants to. But, 
if Elsie, of her own free w T ill, gives up that bunch 
of ducats, I’m mighty glad that it will then come 
my way! There, honesty is the worst policy, I 
daresay, but it’s mine.” 

“Good for you, Joe,” Elsie smiled at him. 
“ I like your frank statement, and it is, as you 
say, only human nature to feel that way.” 

“ But, Joe,” Gerty began, “ how about some 
kind of a compromise? Why can’t you and 
Elsie make a compact, that if Elsie gets the 
money she’ll give you a good slice, and if you 
get it, you’ll give her — ” 

“Nothing doing!” Allison cried; “that isn’t 
cricket, and, besides, I know Elsie well enough to 
know that she doesn’t want charity.” 

“Not for herself, maybe — ” but Elsie inter- 
rupted her sister : 

“ No, nor for any one else. You’ve proposed 
all sorts of plans, Gert, but this last is about the 
worst of all! I may ask you, Joe, to look after 
mother a bit, but not unless you’re glad to do 
it!” 

“ Oh, pshaw, Elsie, you know I’ll do the right 
thing by her. But, here’s the truth : I don’t 
suppose it’s the time to say it, — but I do want 
you all to know it, — and Mr. Whiting, too.” 


142 The Disappearance of Kimball Webb 

Joe looked at Whiting with a glance of hesita- 
tion and then proceeded. 

“ It’s this way : if Elsie doesn’t marry by her 
birthday, — the thirtieth of next month, the 
money comes to me. Well, suppose Elsie mar- 
ries me, the day after her birthday ! ” 

Elsie gasped ; Fenn Whiting laughed outright, 
and Gerty exclaimed quickly, “ Why not the day 
before? ” 

“ No, sir!” retorted Joe. “I love Elsie. I 
want her for my wife, and I’ll be glad to share 
the fortune with her, if she marries me. But 
my independence, my manhood, my whole better 
judgment calls out for the ownership of the for- 
tune myself. I’ll gladly settle a big sum on her, 
she shall have all the allowance she wants, she 
shall do as she pleases, unquestioned and uncon- 
ditionally, but I think I don’t care to be * de- 
pendent on a rich wife! Any man worth his 
salt, would feel that way about it.” 

“ Joe, you are too funny for anything!” and 
Elsie laughed in spite of her shocked amaze- 
ment. 

“I am, am I? Well, I don’t care what you 
think I am, Elsie, if you’ll marry me. This is a 
queer way to propose, I know, but it’s a queer 
situation.” 

“ It’s all that ! ” agreed Whiting. “ And, as 
I’ve proposed to Elsie many times in the past, 
and in more appropriate circumstances, I’ll also 


143 


Gerty’s Plea 

take this occasion to renew my plea that she’ll 
marry me, — the day after her birthday.” 

“ Why, then she’d lose the money ! ” cried 
Gerty. 

“ Yes, but I can’t ask her to marry me in time 
to save the money! That would stamp me a 
fortune-seeker. I love Elsie for herself alone, 
and she knows it. This proposal, here and now, 
is so that you others will understand the situa- 
tion.” 

“ Well, I’m the most proposed to girl in the 
city, I do believe,” and Elsie smiled at both her 
suitors as at two blundering children. “ But 
you see, gentlemen, I’ve no intention of marry- 
ing anybody. As Joe has tacitly agreed to look 
after mother, and as I can look after myself, I 
propose to live in single blessedness till Kimball 
comes home, if it’s my whole lifetime. I’m sorry, 
Gerty, that I can’t sacrifice myself for you and 
the babies — but — oh, Gerty, dearest, don’t ! ” 

For Gerty had dropped her face in her hands 
and was crying silently. 

“You must forgive me,” she sobbed; “I’m 
not mercenary, but when I think of those two 
dear little innocent children, with no home, no 
means, — oh, Elsie, how can you? ” 

“ I can’t ! ” declared Elsie, her arms round 
her sister. “ But, what can I do? I wish I 
knew, — Oh, I am the most miserable girl in the 
world ! ” 


144 The Disappearance of Kimball Webb 

She ran from the room, and after a few minutes 
Joe Allison went away. 

“ I thought he’d prove more generous,” Whit- 
ing said to Gerty. 

“ I understand him,” Gerty replied. “ He 
thinks if he offers to settle a large sum on us, 
Elsie won’t marry him. And if he holds off, she 
may.” 

“ Yes, I see that, but I say, Gerty, I don’t 
want him to marry Elsie ! ” 

“Well, I do! It would fix everything all 
right, and everybodv’d be happy.” 

“ Except Elsie ! She couldn’t stand a life 
with that kid ! ” 

“ Oh, he’s as old as she is. He’s not quite our 
sort, but he’s a nice chap, and Elsie could twist 
him round her finger.” 

“ But I want Elsie myself. She’d be happy 
with me — I could make her forget Kim. Alli- 
son never could do that.” 

“ Well, marry her before the birthday, and it 
will be all right.” 

“ If I can get her to consent, I will. But be- 
fore or after her birthday, I want her just the 
same. I’ll tell you what, Gerty, you marry 
young Allison, and let him have the money, and 
after that, — I mean after the birthday is past, 
I’ll hope to get Elsie to take me.” 

“ You don’t think Kimball will ever come 
back, then? ” 


145 


Gerty’s Plea 

“ Not till after Elsie is married. There’s no 
solution, Gerty, but that the Webbs know where 
he is. Doubtless, tucked away in some comfort- 
able place, working on his play. They’re so sure 
Elsie will marry, to get the money, they expect 
he’ll be ready to return right after her birthday.” 

“ You think he went willingly?” 

“ I think he let Henrietta and his mother per- 
suade him. He’s under Henrietta’s thumb, you 
know, and always has been.” 

“ That’s not fair, Fenn. Kimball’s a strong 
character.” 

“ So’s Henrietta. She’s the only one in the 
world who can rule him.” 

It was the day after this confab, that a 
stranger called on Elsie. 

She willingly saw him, for she had always a 
lurking hope that news of Kimball might come 
from some unexpected quarter. 

So she entered the little reception room, where 
strangers were entertained, and saw what 
seemed at first to be a shy, shock-headed youth. 

But a second glance revealed that the apparent 
shyness was merely the quiet air of a thoughtful 
man, and the shock-headedness resolved itself 
into a peculiar way of wearing his hair. 

The unusually thick crop of light brown was 
cut short behind and at the sides, but over the 
man’s brow the long locks stood out straight and 
then fell over, not like a thatch, but like a long 


146 The Disappearance of Kimball Webb 

marquise over a doorway ! Elsie was fascinated 
by the effect. The thick tresses waved and 
bobbed as the owner of them smiled at her. 

“ May I have a talk with you? ” he said, im- 
pulsively. 

“ Certainly,” she said, smiling in spite of her 
amazement. “ May I ask your business? ” 

“ Yes, indeed; that’s what I came to tell you. 
I’m a Stirrer Up of Sleeping Dogs.” 

“ I — I beg your pardon? ” 

“ Unusual profession, yes. But I’m a whale 
at it! Now, it’s this way, Miss Powell. I read 
the papers, and I see a lot of funny things; I 
don’t mean humorous, but queer, — inexplicable, 

— questionable. And, often they’re things that 
ought to be investigated, — and aren’t. Aren’t, 

— because somebody doesn’t want them to be, — 
although they should be! Well, I don’t believe 
in letting sleeping dogs lie. So, I go around and 
stir them up. See? Simple enough ! ” 

“ A detective? ” 

“ I don’t call myself that, — for I’m not at the 
beck and call of the populace. I don’t accept 
invitations to stir up the dogs, but when I feel 
enough interest, I go and ask permission to do 
so.” 

“ Oh, I’m glad you came ! ” cried Elsie, fer- 
vently. “ I believe you’re the right man at 
last.” 


Gerty’s Plea 147 

“ Fm the right man, all right. And, if I may, 
I’ll begin to stir at once.” 

“ Oh, do ! But, wait a minute, — Mr. — Mr.? ” 

“ Coe, Miss Powell. Coleman Coe, — called 
Coley Coe, of course.” 

“ I was going to say, Mr. Coe, are your serv- 
ices very expensive? ” 

“ Depends on time, place, degree and manner 
of the work, and more than that, on the results. 
No results, no pay. Results, — pay accordingly.” 

“ Begin to stir, then,” said Elsie, with a 
straight glance into the honest eyes that had al- 
ready gained her trust. “ You know the case.” 

“ I know all that has been in the papers ; all 
I could glean from gunning around among 
people ; and I’ve a few stirring ideas of my own. 
Let’s work together, shall us?” And the 
brown marquise shook eagerly. 

“ To a finish ! ” exclaimed Elsie. 


CHAPTER X 


COLEY COE 

N EARLY every evening Coley Coe came to 
report to Elsie. 

The first time that he met the other members 
of the Powell family he quite took them by storm. 
His big, blue eyes had a frank, even impudent 
stare, but his smile was so winning and his 
laugh so spontaneous that it was impossible to 
be otherwise than friendly toward him. 

“ Awful glad to meet you, Mrs. Powell,” he 
said, shaking hands cordially, “ and I want to 
congratulate you on your daughter. Miss 
Powell’s a wonder! How? Oh, in every way, 
but especially in having a sense of humour. So 
few girls do, nowadays ! ” 

Coley spoke as a man of wide experience, 
though as a matter of fact, he was only about 
Elsie’s age himself. “And you have, too,” he 
went on, seeing the twinkle in Mrs. Powell’s eyes. 
“ I suppose it runs in the family.” 

“You’re likely to find out,” said Elsie, as 
Gerty came into the room and Coleman was 
presented to her. 

Another of the young man’s comprehensive 
glances seemed to gather Gerty into his acquaint- 

148 


Coley Coe 


149 


ance, and after pleasant greetings lie said, “ Now, 
we’re all acquainted, and ready to begin work.” 

He trotted around the room, selected the 
chair he preferred, and pulling out the smallest 
from a nest of little tables, placed it in front of 
him, and produced a notebook and pencil. 

“ I don’t want to know the facts or details of 
the case, for I know all those,” he said, “ I want 
to find some sleeping dogs to stir up. By which, 
I mean,” his wavy mop of hair shook over his 
forehead as he explained, “ I want to get side- 
lights, I want to find out things that you people 
know of, that others don’t, — I want your opin- 
ions, your suspicions, your ideas, — no matter 
how absurd they may seem.” 

Coe’s eyes were of that intense, yet light, 
China blue, that is said by physiognomists to de- 
note the vagabond character. And vagabond 
partly describes the boy’s nature. Not that he 
was one, but his temperament was roving, er- 
ratic, receptive and of wide interests. He saw 
everything that came within the vision of those 
alert blue eyes, and most things he saw he un- 
derstood at once ; if not, he kept- at them until 
he did. 

“ Suspects, for instance,” he went on. 
“ Whom do you suspect? ” and he turned sud- 
denly to Mrs. Powell. 

“ Gracious ! I don’t know, — ” the good lady 
replied, flustered at his attack. 


150 The Disappearance of Kimball Webb 

“ But there must be somebody, — that seems 
to you a possible factor in the removal of Mr. 
Webb. Somebody, of whom you would say, if 
that person proved to be the criminal, ‘ I thought 
so! ’ Isn’t there, now? ” 

“ No,” said Mrs. Powell, but she spoke hesi- 
tantly. 

“ There ! you’ve proved there is, by your tone. 
Come, now, who is it? ” 

“The Webbs,” said Mrs. Powell, speaking 
sharply. “ I don’t say I’m right, but I can’t 
get it out of my head, that they know where 
Kimball is.” 

“ That’s the ticket ! ” Coley smiled at her. 

“ I’ve got to get a line on this thing. Now, 
Mrs. Seaman, your suspect is — ” 

“ Wallace Courtney,” Gerty declared. “ I’d 
suspect the Webbs, but I can’t think they’d want 
all the opprobrium of the cancelled wedding 
party and all the unpleasant notoriety that it 
caused — ” 

“ A lot they cared for that ! ” exclaimed Elsie. 

“ Go on, Mrs. Seaman,” urged Coe. “ You 
think that Mr. Courtney — ” 

“ I think he somehow arranged to have Kim- 
ball Webb kidnapped,” Gerty said, positively; 
“ I don’t know how he accomplished it, but you 
see, he just learned that very evening, that Mr. 
Webb’s play was so nearly like his own and much 
farther along. He realized that Kimball’s play 


Coley Coe 


151 


would be done and produced before his own 
could be finished, and he was desperate. He 
knew he couldn’t do anything after the wed- 
ding, so he made a grand dash and put Kimball 
out of the way at once.” 

“ How? ” cried Elsie, looking scornful. 

“ Never mind that side of it for the moment, 
Miss Powell,” Coley Coe shook his forelock at 
her and smiled. u I’m going to find out the man- 
ner of the exit, but first I want to find the guilty 
man.” 

“ The guilty man is a woman,” Mrs. Powell 
persisted, “ two women, in fact.” 

A blue-eyed smile from Coe quieted her, and 
Gerty went on, “ I know Wallace Courtney 
pretty well, and he’s a man who, with all his quiet 
ways is a firebrand at heart. If he wants a 
thing, everything else must give way. He is 
unconventional and lawless. He cares nothing 
for appearances, — why, look at him ! He’s prac- 
tically living with Lulie Lloyd, — ” 

“ Oh, that’s all right,” Elsie broke in, “ he 
merely took rooms in that same house, to be quiet 
for his work and to have the services of Lulie. 
I went there, you know. Mrs. Lloyd lives with 
Lulie, — and, too, there’s nothing that interests 
Wallace Courtney but his play. He is bound up 
in it, and, as Gerty says, he would sacrifice every- 
thing, — his reputation, or Lulie’s either, — if it 
would help him along with his work.” 


152 The Disappearance of Kimball Webb 

“ That’s right,” Coley agreed ; “ I’ve looked up 
the Courtney side of the ease, and it’s all as Miss 
Powell says. I don’t trust the fair Lulie, though, 
— do you? ” and he looked at Elsie. 

“No, I don’t. She adores Wallace, and I 
know she’ll tell him a whole lot of points from 
Kim’s play, which Mr. Courtney will use in his 
own. But I don’t care, if we can only get Kim 
back, — his play can go into the discard.” 

“ That’s the talk ! Now, Miss Powell, who’s 
your suspect? ” 

“ I’m of a divided opinion, between the Webbs 
and Mr. Courtney. And sometimes, — I don’t 
think it could have been either of them.” 

“ Spooks, then? ” 

“ Oh, gracious, no ! Cut out all thought of * 
that idea ! ” 

“ But what about the queer things that have 
happened in the room Mr. Webb used? I’m told 
there have been unexplained sounds and missing 
jewels and pulled-off bedclothes — ” 

“ All garbled reports of servants or the Webb 
ladies themselves, who are foolishly inclined to 
the supernatural.” 

“ Miss Webb, as well as her mother? ” 

“Partially. Henrietta doesn’t admit it, but 
she believes in visitations, — or premonitions, 
anyway.” 

“ Well, so much for suspects. Now, for mo- 
tives: The Webbs’ motive being, of course, to 


Coley Coe 


153 


prevent their beloved son and brother from mak- 
ing a match of which they don’t wholly approve.” 
“ Right/’ said Elsie, her lip curling. 

“ Mr. Courtney’s motive being the sequestra- 
tion of Kimball Webb, his rival playwright, un- 
til his own play is completed.” 

“ Motive enough in his estimation,” commented 
Elsie. 

“ Yes; motive enough for his desire to put the 
man away, but not enough to explain his accom- 
plishment of what must have been for him a dif- 
ficult feat. The abduction of Mr. Webb would 
have been easy enough for his own people but 
for no one else. That so? ” 

“ Yes,” Elsie added. “ But if his own people 
did it, where are they keeping him all this time? ” 
“ The same question is pertinent, whoever is 
responsible for the disappearance. I’m leaving 
out the reckoning that Mr. Webb went away will- 
ingly. I don’t believe that for a minute. I’m 
working entirely on the assumption that he was 
kidnapped, abducted, carried off by force and for 
a wrong purpose. That means there’s a criminal 
to be found, and I’m going to find him. The wit- 
nesses against him are sleeping dogs, so far, but 
I’m going to stir them up ! You’ll see ! ” 

“ But there couldn’t have been any witnesses,” 
exclaimed Elsie. 

“ Why not? Granting that somebody took 
Mr. Webb away from his home, — and, unless 


154 The Disappearance of Kimball Webb 

he’s still in that house, somebody did, why 
couldn’t some other body have seen him taken? ” 

“ I suppose somebody could,” Elsie admitted, 
“but in that case, why haven’t they come for- 
ward and told of it? ” 

“ There are lots of good and expensive reasons 
why they don’t.” 

“ But you know there’s a reward of fifty thou- 
sand dollars — ” 

“ Which, to my mind, goes to prove that who- 
ever took him had a bigger deal on than that. 
Now, let’s consider a motive. This isn’t a mur- 
der case, — so far as we know — oh, don’t do 
that ! ” for Elsie broke down at his implied sug- 
gestion and shook with sobs. 

“ Look here, Miss Powell, we’re going to stir 
up things and we must be prepared for whatever 
we find. I’ve not the slightest reason to think 
of foul play in the case, but we must hunt the 
criminal just as carefully as if we were looking 
for a murderer. Now, brace up and don’t be 
scared by a sleeping dog that isn’t there ! ” 

“ Go on about a motive,” said Gerty, who was 
listening intently. 

“ Well, we’ve got to admit that Kimball Webb 
has been stolen. We’ll use that term as being 
more graphic than kidnapped or abducted. The 
former always connotes an infant, and the latter 
seems to me to imply a girl. Let’s say Mr. Webb 
has been stolen, and we’re out to get back the 


1 55 


Coley Coe 

stolen goods. Now, what’s the reason he was 
stolen? It’s got to he an awful big reason, for 
the robber took awful big risks. And it’s a 
daring, — a stupendously daring stunt that he 
pulled off! He’s been planning it for a long 
time, — I say, he, — but if it turns out to be the 
Webb ladies, we’ll change our pronoun. Now, 
there’s no reason big enough but money. I’m 
prepared to stand by that statement. Love is 
a strong motive for lots of crimes, — but you 
don’t suspect any of your disappointed suitors, 
do you, Miss Powell? ” 

“No,” and Elsie smiled at his expression. 
“ There are lots of them heartbroken, of course, 
but none that I can think would have inclination 
or ability to cut up such a trick.” 

“ Well, then, grant the reason is acquisition of 
money, somehow. Perhaps the reward is not 
big enough, — ” 

“ Fifty thousand dollars ! ” 

“ Maybe the criminal is out for bigger loot. 
Who would benefit financially by the disappear- 
ance of Kimball Webb? ” 

“ Nobody; he is not a rich man by any means,” 
Elsie informed him. 

The mass of brown hair wagged wildly, as 
Coley Cole shook his head. 

“ Not from his estate, — the man isn’t dead. 
But supposing you, Miss Powell, stuck to your 
resolution not to marry any one else, thereby 


156 The Disappearance of Kimball Webb 

losing jour aunt’s money, who would benefit? ” 

“ Joe Allison ! ” 

“ Exactly. No, we’ve no definite reason to 
suspect Mr. Allison, we’ve no scrap of evidence 
against him, no clue to his guilt. But I shall 
stir up some sleeping dogs and see how they 
bark at him.” 

“ Joe! ” Gerty exclaimed; “ ridiculous! ” 

“ So, Mrs. Seaman? And who wouldn’t be 
ridiculous? ” 

“ The Webbs wouldn’t. It would be natural, 
quite in keeping with their way of doing things, 
and it wouldn’t be ridiculous to suspect them.” 

“ Now, I think it would,” Coley put his head 
on one side, and his blue eyes smiled at her. I 
do think it would be ridiculous to imagine two 
staid, respectable ladies putting a man out of 
the way, against his will. And, if with his con- 
sent, w r hy the mystery at all? Why not let the 
man go off of his own accord, — or, even tell Miss 
Powell of his wish to break off the affair, and 
ask her to release him.” 

“ He didn’t want to be released ! ” Elsie 
cried, indignantly, “ and you know it, Gert ! ” 

“ Of course I know it ! No, Mr. Coe, Elsie’s 
bridegroom never deserted her! I know him 
well, and I know his devotion to my sister was 
loyal and faithful.” 

“Yes, I know all that, too,” Coley tossed 
back his hair. “ If the Webbs are responsible for 


Coley Coe 157 

his disappearance, it was done without his 
knowledge or consent.” 

“How do yon mean?” Elsie exclaimed. 

“ I mean he was carried off while uncon- 
scious.” 

“ Impossible ! ” 

“Any other theory is impossible. Mr. Webb 
is no weakling, — although hampered by his 
wounded knee. He would put up a stiff fight 
if he knew he was being stolen ! ” 

“ How do you know that? ” 

“ Oh, I told you I had all the facts of the case. 
I’m getting fancies now, — and I’ll admit yours 
are illuminating.” 

“ Go on,” Elsie said, “ ask for more, — we’ll 
give ’em.” 

“ Nope. Got enough now. Next I want to 
see friend Allison.” 

“ Don’t let him know you suspect him,” Gerty 
begged. “ He can’t be the one.” 

“ Leave me to judge of that. How can I see 
him?” 

“ He’ll probably be here soon,” Elsie said, “ but 
as Gerty says, don’t suspect him , — it’s fool- 
ish.” 

Coley glared at her, his blue eyes glinting with 
mock severity. “ Don’t tell me whom to suspect, 
Miss Powell! I shall suspect everybody. Not 
omitting yourself, your mother, your sister, — or 
her babies! Now, will you be good?” 


158 The Disappearance of Kimball Webb 

“ Oh, if it’s merely a matter of universal sus- 
picion, all right.” 

“ That’s my custom. Suspect everybody, and 
then eliminate the useless suspects as fast as you 
can.” 

“ Eliminate my two kiddies as soon as possible, 
won’t you? ” laughed Gerty, and Coe promised. 

Before Allison came, Fenn Whiting turned up. 

He looked at Coley Coe with interest, as they 
were introduced, and Coe’s business there ex- 
plained. 

“ Good work ! ” Whiting said, heartily. 
“ Count on me to help.” 

“ First you must be suspected, Fenn,” Elsie 
said, and Whiting looked inquiringly at Coe. 

“ You’re after me? ” he asked, genially. 

“ After everybody,” Coe returned. “ I’ve just 
crossed off the two Seaman children as suspects, 
because of the pleadings of their mother, but no 
one else may be stricken from my list until he is 
proved to be beyond suspicion.” 

“Good! Go ahead. Where do I get off? 
Want my alibi or what? I’m not impatient, but 
I’d like to be passed, so I can begin to help you.” 

“ Good for you, I want help. Start in, will 
you, by telling me whom you suspect, — if any? ” 

“ Suspect is too strong a word, — but my 
theory is that Kimball Webb abducted himself, 
with the connivance and help of his butler and 
chauffeur.” 


Coley Coe 159 

“ And the knowledge and consent of his mother 
and sister? ” 

“ That I’m not so sure of. But looked at from 
the viewpoint of plain common sense, there 
seems to me no other way for that man to have 
gotten out of that room and out of that house, 
but to have walked out voluntarily.” 

“And the locked doors?” 

“A fabrication of the said servants. You 
may theorize and talk fairy tales all you like, 
but there’s no other rational explanation.” 

“ And the motive? ” 

“ I can’t say. Quite aside from the rudeness 
and impoliteness of hinting any lack of his desire 
to marry Miss Powell, I can’t believe such a 
thing could be true. I’m positive that man, when 
at his own bachelor dinner, at which I was 
present, expected and intended to become a 
bridegroom the following day. Now, I believe 
something transpired, after his return home, that 
made it impossible or undesirable that he should 
be married. I can’t say what, — for I’ve no 
idea, — but something pretty big and unavoid- 
able.” 

“ You mean something disgraceful? ” the blue 
eyes of his questioner looked into his own. 

The steel grey eyes of Fenn Whiting met the 
others squarely. 

“ I don’t want to say that,” he spoke slowly, 
“ but it may have been. Better men than Kim- 


160 The Disappearance of Kimball Webb 

ball Webb have been brought to bay by force of 
circumstances ; wiser men than he have been the 
victims of blackmailing schemes; stronger men 
than he have met disaster through no fault of 
their own. I make no suggestions, — I have none 
to make, — but I maintain the only logical theory 
of Webb’s disappearance is that he went volun- 
tarily, if not willingly.” 

“ I think you’re horrid ! ” Elsie cried, her eyes 
flashing. “ Kim never did anything wrong or 
underhanded ! He couldn’t have been black- 
mailed! He couldn’t have been involved in any 
thing disgraceful ! How idiotic ! ” 

“ If the idea is idiotic, Miss Powell, it will 
meet the fate it deserves. But we must stir up 
those sleeping dogs of blackmailers, if they exist. 
It is a plausible theory, if not the only possible 
one, and I shall remember it.” 

Whiting gave the young detective a look of 
appreciative interest and the glance was re- 
turned, for the two men seemed to understand 
each other. 

“ I admit it’s only a theory,” Whiting said, his 
prominent, muscular jaw set with a grim de- 
cision, “but you’ll be hard put to it, to trump 
up a better one.” 

“ That may well be,” Coe agreed, “ but I’d be 
sorry to depend on one theory alone. I like to 
have lots of them, then, if I pick up a clue here 
or there, I can fit it in where it belongs.” 


161 


Coley Coe 

Like a Skye Terrier, he blinked through the 
absurd mop of hair that covered his forehead, and 
Whiting, his own brow bared, showing lines 
that sloped up to a point, gazed at Coe with a 
fascinated curiosity. 

He wondered why the man chose that peculiar 
haircut, but it was not his business and he asked 
no questions. 

“ All right,” he said ; “ any of your theories 
ripe for discussion? 99 

“Yes; one of them. I think a very strong 
motive could be ascribed to ’the young man 
from the West, — the alternative heir, you know.” 

“Allison?” said Whiting. “Oh, come, now, 
you’ve nothing against him.” 

“ Only his certainty of inheriting the millions, 
in case Miss Powell doesn’t marry by the stated 
date. Fine scheme, to steal the bridegroom, — 
thus lessening by a large percentage the chances 
of her immediate wedding.” 

“ Yes, the motive is all right,” Whiting agreed, 
“ but you don’t know Joe ! Why, he’s the whitest 
young chap — ” 

“ On the surface; why not? But, do you sup- 
pose a criminal goes about labelled? Count 
every man guilty until he’s proved innocent, is a 
better plan to work on than the reverse principle. 
If Joe Allison is innocent it will be far easier for 
him to prove it, than for me to prove it if he’s 
guilty.” 


162 The Disappearance of Kimball Webb 

Whiting pondered over this, then he said, 

“ Well, I admit, you’re the most novel detec- 
tive I’ve ever run up against ! Have you usually 
succeeded in your quests? ” 

“ That’s a leading question.” Coley Coe 
looked a little surprised at it, as if he thought it 
a breach of etiquette. 

Whiting flushed and his thin lips shut to- 
gether sharply, as they did when he was a bit 
embarrassed. 

“ I beg your pardon,” he said, simply. “ That 
did sound rude, but honestly, I didn’t mean it 
so. It was the unconsidered expression of my 
interest in your methods, — which, if I may say 
it, are refreshingly unusual.” 

Coe accepted the honourable apology, and met 
Whiting half-way. 

“ My methods are unusual, and I’m properly 
ashamed of them.” His eyes smiled. “ But 
they do work, — and I have had successes, — oh, 
lots of ’em ! ” he wound up, boyishly. 

Then Allison came. 

The others looked on curiously as Coley Cole 
made his first survey of the young Westerner. 

Unsuspectingly, Joe stood the ordeal well. 
He looked his usual frank, good-natured self, and 
he greeted the detective with unconcealed in- 
terest. 

“Miss Powell told me about you,” he said, 
“ and I’m downright glad you’ve begun to look 


163 


Coley Coe 

into this thing. It seemed to me nothing was 
being done. Not that it’s my business, — but 
I’m more or less mixed up in it, and I want to 
see the mystery cleared up.” 

“ When did you arrive in New York? ” Coe 
asked him, with a straightforward glance. 

“ About a week after the disappearance of Mr. 
Webb. Why?” 

“ Merely getting information. You’ve no ob- 
jection to giving it? ” 

“ Not a bit. But if you’re suspecting me, say 
so, right out. I’d like it better.” 

“ I daresay you would, but we detectives don’t 
always ask suspects their preferences.” 

Joe’s blank look of surprise at this speech was 
funny to see. He glared at Coe, and then under 
the influence of the shining eyes and the ridicu- 
lous hair, Allison laughed and said, “ You’ll do! 
And so you don’t suspect me, after all? Why 
don’t you? ” 

“ That’s part of the tricks of my trade,” Coe 
returned. “ I never let my suspects think I sus- 
pect them. It would spoil my investigation 
work if I did.” 

“ By George ! ” ejaculated Allison ; “ you’ll 
get me scared if you talk like that. I suppose 
you think I had a motive for putting Mr. Webb 
out of the way — ” 

“ Oh, Joe,” cried Gerty, “ don’t take Mr. Coe 
so seriously; of course he doesn’t suspect you.” 


164 The Disappearance of Kimball Webb 

“ Of course I do,” said Coley, calmly. “ I sus- 
pect everybody. I’ve told you that before. At 
this moment I suspect every person who I’ve 
heard has any connection with the matter at all. 
— any connection, mind you, — and I shall 
finally fasten the guilt on one of my suspects.” 

“ Do you know already which one?” Elsie 
cried, quickly. 

“ I do not; but I’ll say that I suspect some 
more than others, — though I may be mistaken. 
I’m not infallible.” 


CHAPTER XI 


SLEEPING DOGS 

N O one deemed Kimball Webb dead, yet the 
grave itself could not have been more silent 
than the circumstances of his absence. 

The public generally were divided into two 
classes, those who thought he had decamped to 
avoid his wedding and those who thought he had 
been abducted for some undiscovered reason. 

The Webb family were extremely reticent, 
and neither Mrs. Webb nor Henrietta expressed 
definite beliefs or fears. Even to their nearest 
and dearest friends they showed an attitude of 
patient waiting and cheery hopefulness of Kim- 
ball’s return. This caused, in many minds, 
suspicion that they knew where Kimball was, 
and had no fears for his safety. 

The Powell family, — that is, Mrs. Powell and 
Gerty, were growing daily more alarmed and 
anxious about the future. If Kimball did not 
reappear before the thirtieth of June, and if 
Elsie persisted in her refusal to marry any one 
else, their present income would cease entirely, 
they would have to move out of their luxurious 
home, and the outlook was most dismal. 

There were many men ready and willing to 
165 


166 The Disappearance of Kimball Webb 

marry Elsie Powell, and not alone for the fortune 
she would inherit. Elsie had had “ shoals of 
suitors ” ever since her school days, and though 
when she met Kimball Webb, she discarded all 
serious thought of the others, they did not so 
easily give her up. 

Fenn Whiting was the most zealous and in- 
sistent of the lot. He had worshipped Elsie for 
years. He had been forced to step aside in 
Webb’s favour, but now, with Webb out of the 
running, he renewed his suit with all the ardour 
of his intense nature. 

He put the matter before Elsie in every pos- 
sible light. He offered to marry her after her 
birthday had passed and she was a poor girl, or 
before her birthday, when the marriage would 
assure her the fortune. The decision was left 
to her. Or, he suggested, he would consider her 
engaged to him, she could set the wedding day 
whenever she chose, and, then, if Webb turned 
up before the hour, he would abdicate in his 
favour. 

No one could make more generous or more 
magnanimous proposals, and Elsie was touched 
by his patience and devotion. 

Yet she could not bring herself to agree to his 
plans. There was nearly a month, still, before 
her birthday, and much might happen in a 
month. 

Then, too, Joe Allison was to be considered. 


167 


Sleeping Dogs 

He, also, wanted to marry Elsie, but be adhered 
to his plan of waiting until after her birthday 
when the control of the fortune would be his. 

This, he declared, in no way reflected on his 
love or consideration for her, but it seemed to 
him, more fitting in every way, that the husband 
should own the fortune, — especially as he was 
willing to give his wife carte blanche and also 
to provide liberally for her family. 

Elsie rather admired the staunchness of his 
purpose in this respect, for she had come to know 
Allison well enough to appreciate his strong will 
and his hard common sense. 

Meantime, Coleman Coe was busily stirring 
up his sleeping, dogs. 

He seemed to possess an uncanny intuition as 
to where sleeping dogs were lying, and he went 
straight, though secretly, after them. 

His methods were, perhaps, unusual, for he 
depended largely on assistants. His belief was, 
that he could do better work by farming out the 
drudgery of his pursuit, and doing only the 
thinking parts himself. 

So, he had a fairly good-sized corps of as- 
sistants, whom he had trained to do just what he 
told them and no more. 

By far the greater part of them were shad- 
owers. 

Not professional trailers, from a detective 
Bureau, but men, boys, — and also girls, whom 


168 The Disappearance of Kimball Webb 

he had picked here and there with a view to their 
special adaptation for the work. 

Coe’s great first principle was to learn what a 
suspect is doing when he doesn’t think he is 
watched. 

Therefore, with careful and comprehensive 
effort, he was making a list of the people he 
wanted shadowed. 

Coley Coe, was neither visionary nor imagina- 
tive. He did depend a great deal on intuition, 
but only when it was undoubtedly in accordance 
with facts. 

His list completed, he put his machinery in 
motion, and soon had quiet but efficient trailers 
following the daily routine of both Henrietta 
Webb and her mother, also their two men serv- 
ants, Hollis and Oscar. 

Then, a competent shadow never lost sight of 
Joe Allison. Another was unobtrusively at the 
heels of Fenn Whiting, and another reported 
duly every move of Wallace Courtney. 

Lulie Lloyd was under secret surveillance, as 
was Owen Thorne, the trusted trustee. 

This work in the hands of efficient workers 
was neither difficult nor onerous, and it gave Coe 
a wide outlook of possibilities when the reports 
came in. 

Nor was Coley himself idle. He could cover 
a great many occasions denied to his underlings. 
He could see the Webb ladies in their home sur- 


169 


Sleeping Dogs 

roundings; could call on Allison or Whiting 
when he chose, could demand an interview with 
Wallace Courtney however much that busy 
gentleman might object; and could see Lulie 
Lloyd any time he cared to invite her out for an 
evening. 

In fact, Lulie was quite taken with the gay 
young Coe, and small wonder, for he deliberately 
determined that she should be. 

No girl of Lulie Lloyd’s stamp could resist the 
lure of Coley’s admiring blue eyes, or the fascina- 
tion of the tossing hair above his brow. 

Even Elsie found him so agreeable that her 
mother said pettishly, “ If that young busy-body 
never succeeds in finding Kim, you might marry 
him — ” 

She stopped, a little frightened at the look 
Elsie gave her. 

“ Don’t look at me like that,” she cried. 

“ Then never say anything of that sort again,” 
Elsie warned her, in a severe voice. “ I’ve 
trouble enough, mother, without such thought- 
less, heartless speeches from you.”* 

“ Oh, pshaw, Elsie,” spoke up Gerty, “ mother 
didn’t mean anything. If you take it so seri- 
ously I shall think you’re really interested in 
Coley Coe.” 

“ I am, to the extent of his work for me, — and 
no further.” 

“ I’ve yet to see any extent to his work,” 


170 The Disappearance of Kimball Webb 

sneered Gerty ; “ it seems to me that he doesn’t 
get anywhere.” 

“ Give him time,” Elsie retorted. “ He’s only 
been on the case about a week. But, truly, Gert, 
I have faith in him. I believe he’ll find Kimball 
yet ! ” 

“ Well, I don’t. You may rest assured that 
whoever put Kim out of the way will keep him 
out till after your birthday. And I think, Elsie, 
you ought to decide what you’re going to do. 
It’s too awful for you to sit still, and let your 
birthday go by, without marrying anybody.” 

“ Far more awful to marry somebody you 
don’t care for. Look here, you and mother both 
married for love; why should I sacrifice myself 
for the greed of my family — ” 

“ Oh, Elsie,” cried her mother, “ what a way 
to put it ! ” 

“ It’s the truth,” said Elsie, doggedly, “ and 
you two must admit it. You want me to marry 
just so you can continue to live here in luxury, 
and have no care about money matters.” 

“ I’m sure I think more of your welfare than 
my own,” insisted Mrs. Powell. “ I want my 
child to secure the inheritance that was left to 
her.” 

“ At the cost of all my happiness in life ! ” 
stormed Elsie. “ At the cost of a broken heart 
and a loveless marriage, — the saddest fate that 
can befall a woman ! ” 


171 


Sleeping Dogs 

“ Rubbish ! ” exclaimed Gerty. “ Cut out the 
histrionics, Elsie. You’re too young to think 
your heart is for ever bound up in Kimball Webb. 
There are lots of men as good as he, — and if 
you’d never met him, you would have been en- 
tirely satisfied with Fenn Whiting, — who is 
really the finer man of the two.” 

“ Gerty, I’m ashamed of you. Suppose some- 
body had told you another man was better or 
finer than Philip, would you have calmly 
agreed? ” 

“ That’s different. And it doesn’t matter. 
Had I been situated as you are, I would have 
thought it my duty to marry some good man 
rather than let my mother and sister know 
want.” 

“ Yes, .had you been situated as I am, you 
would have married anybody, for your own sake, 
rather than lose five million dollars ! ” 

“ I should,” Gerty calmly agreed ; “ and ninety- 
nine women out of a hundred would do the same.” 

“ Then I’m the hundredth,” Elsie spoke with 
a quiet decision, “ for I repeat, what you already 
know, I will never marry any one but Kimball 
Webb, — money or no money, — family or no 
family.” 

“ That I should live to hear a child of mine 
talk like that ! ” wailed Mrs. Powell. “ Elsie, 
have you no heart? Have you no compassion 
for an invalid mother, — a sorrow-stricken sister, 


172 The Disappearance of Kimball Webb 

— two helpless little children? What sort of a 
monster are you? ” 

“ Don’t, mother ! ” Elsie begged, her lovely 
face aghast at the accusations hurled at her. 

“ Mother is right,” said Gertv ; “ I haven’t the 
same authority over you, as your mother, but if 
I had, I should command you to do what is so 
clearly your duty. I do not speak for myself, but 
for mother’s sake, and for the sake of my lovely 
innocent children, I humiliate my pride and beg 
of you, — beg of you, Elsie, to save us from dis- 
grace and poverty.” 

“ You do speak for yourself,” Elsie’s clear 
eyes rested on her sister, “ you do think of your- 
self first, Gerty, you always do, — though you 
pretend you don’t. And I don’t see how you 
can! It is outrageous, — heathenish for you to 
talk as you do, — both of you! You practically 
want to sell me, — sell me for your own comfort 
and ease ! And I refuse to be sold ! ” 

“ Very well, then,” and Gerty looked despair- 
ing, “ there’s no more to be said. We may as 
well begin to get ready to leave this apartment. 
Where we can go, I’ve no idea. You know what 
rents are, now; you know how impossible it is 
to get an apartment of any sort, — and, too, we 
can’t afford any apartment ! I suppose we shall 
have to live in a tenement house, — or go into 
the country.” 

“ I expect to get work,” said Elsie. 


173 


Sleeping Dogs 

“ Don’t be ridiculous, child,” said her mother. 
“ What work can you possibly do? ” 

“ Oh, there are lots of things, — stenography, 
— private secretary, open a tea room — ” 

“ Elsie,” and Gerty looked very stern. “ Do 
try to talk sense ! If you’re really thinking you 
can do those things, let me remind you that 
stenography requires a year, at least, for tuition 
and practice; a tea room requires capital, influ- 
ence and a special adaptation for that sort of 
thing, — which you haven’t got. As for a private 
secretary, you’re about the least fitted for that 
of any one I know! You can’t keep your own 
desk in order, or your own correspondence looked 
after. You’re for ever forgetting engagements, 
and you’re accustomed to an idle life, getting up 
when you choose and being absolute mistress of 
your time. You couldn’t adapt yourself to 
routine work, or to being always at the beck and 
call of anybody, so you couldn’t make a success 
of any of those things. The result would be 
that instead of providing a home, you would be 
everlastingly sent back home from your work 
because of your failure to give satisfaction.” 

Elsie looked at her sister, a dumb acquiescence 
in her big brown eyes. They had a hunted ex- 
pression, as of a frightened fawn at bay. 

“ Then, what can I do ! Oh, Gerty, help me ! 
You’re my older sister, give me some real help — 
tell me some way I can satisfy you and mother, 


174 The Disappearance of Kimball Webb 

and not — not be sold like a slave in the 
market ! ” 

“ Dear child,” and Gerty became suddenly 
suave and gentle, “ it isn’t being sold to give your- 
self to some good and worthy man. And, it is 
as your loving elder sister that I advise you as I 
do. I speak truly, when I tell you you could 
never earn your living at any business. In this 
day, skilled labour is required; the services of 
experienced, efficient girls are demanded and a 
beginner, a learner, has no chance at all. Now, 
marriage, with a true-hearted, honourable man, 
is the best lot that could befall you, — ” 

“ Without love! ” 

“ Love will come. No woman can remain in- 
sensible to the devotion of a loving husband. 
Fenn Whiting — ” 

“ I won’t marry Fenn Whiting! I hate him ! ” 

“ Well, Mr. Harbison — ” 

“ I hate him, too ! ” Elsie was white with 
angry excitement. “ I hate everybody but 
Kim'! ” 

“ Oh, well, if you’re going to act like that ! ” 
Gerty gave up the argument. 

But Mrs. Powell took it up. 

“Your sister is right, Elsie, dear,” she said; 
“ and I’m sure you must know your own mother 
would be the last person in the world to advise 
you to do anything wrong or anything that might 


175 


Sleeping Dogs 

endanger jour happiness. But a woman’s hap- 
piest life is the married life. You will even- 
tually believe this ; you will some day marry, and 
if Kimball never returns, it will be some other 
man. Why not realize this, and marry now, 
thus securing the great wealth that is rightfully 
your own but can be attained only by your mar- 
riage. Don’t harp on love, — as Gerty says, it 
will come with your married life. It will unfold 
like a beautiful flower as the time goes on, — as 
you live with and in the companionship of a good 
kind man — ” 

“ Mother, do stop ! ” Elsie cried, in despera- 
tion. “ If you want me to sacrifice myself for 
that detestable money, say so! But don’t get 
off all that foolish argument about love coming 
after marriage and all that! In fact you stand 
a better chance of persuading me, if you say 
frankly it’s for your sake and Gerty’s, than if 
you talk rubbish about me.” 

“ I thought you’d see your duty,” Gerty cried, 
clutching at the straw Elsie had tacitly held out. 
“ Do it for us, then, Elsie ! Marry whomever 
you will, goodness knows you’ve enough to 
choose from, but do it before the thirtieth of 
June! Will you, — will you, Elsie?” 

She hung on her sister’s words, she listened for 
Elsie’s decision. 

“ Oh, Gerty, let me think — ” 


176 The Disappearance of Kimball Webb 

“ You’ve had time enough to think. If you’re 
to he married before the thirtieth, it’s time we 
began preparations.” 

“ Preparations? They’re all made. I have 
my trousseau, — ” 

“ Yes, of course. The principal preparation is 
to decide on the right man.” 

“ There’s only one right man,” and Elsie’s eyes 
were piteous. 

“ Yes, yes,” said Gerty, hurriedly, “ I mean the 
nicest man except Kimball. Now, let’s think 
him over. You don’t really hate Fenn, do you? ” 

“No, I don’t hate him, — he’s a good friend, 
and all that. But, oh, Gert, I couldn’t live with 
him! He has no, — no imagination.” 

“ You mean no love of hifalutin poetry, and 
that sort of thing that you and Kim fooled so 
much time over.” 

“ Yes, — I suppose I do.” 

“ Well, let me tell you, a strong, sound per- 
sonality like Fenn Whiting, is worth a lot more 
in the long run than a mooning, visionary sort 
of person.” 

“ Kim isn’t mooning and visionary.” 

“ Never mind Kim. Say, Elsie, how do you 
like Joe? ” 

“ Joe Allison ! Marry him ! Oh, Gerty, ridic- 
ulous ! And, too, he insists on having the money 
in his own right.” 

“ He won’t, if you insist the other way. Joe’s 


Sleeping Dogs 177 

over head and ears in love with you, and if you 
like you can twist him round your finger.” 

“ I suppose I could, — but Joe is so — so — , 
oh, sort of raw — ” 

“ Raw ! Joe Allison ! Why, Elsie, he’s most 
polished, — most correct of manner, most delight- 
ful conversationalist — ” 

“ Hold on, Gert, you’re making him out a para- 
gon! If he’s all that, in your eyes, why don’t 
you marry him yourself? You’re bound to 
marry again, sooner or later, and really, it would 
settle things beautifully, if I let my birthday 
pass, let Joe get the money, and then let him 
marry you instead of me. You could give me 
enough to live on, — and I could wait for Kim.” 

“ Great scheme, Elsie,” Gerty said, coldly ; 
“ there’s only the objection, — Joe wouldn’t have 
me.” 

“ Oh, so you’ve thought it over, have you? 
Well, Gerty, I don’t know just what I shall do. 
But I’m not going to be pushed to a decision. 
I’m waiting on Mr. Coe’s actions. He may find 
Kim for me — ” 

“Not likely!” Gerty scoffed. 

“No, I fear it isn’t likely. But I’m still 
hoping for it. Anyway, I won’t be forced into 
this wedding you insist upon. If I agree, I’ll 
tell you in time for you to make the ‘ prepara- 
tions ’ you talk about. But I won’t have a big 
wedding — ” 


178 The Disappearance of Kimball Webb 

“ No, dearest, just a small, quiet affair, — oh, 
Elsie, how sweet you are! I knew you’d see 
reason at last — ” 

“ I haven’t seen it yet, — and I haven’t said 
positively that I will ! ” 

Gerty kept silent, lest she should lose the 
ground she had already gained in the conflict. 

That evening Coley Coe called to report to 
Elsie. 

“ Let’s go out somewhere where we can talk 
unheard,” he urged. 

“ Oh, we’re all right in the drawing room,” 
Elsie demurred, “ no one can overhear us here.” 

“ Yes, they can. Come out somewhere.” 

So Elsie agreed and they went for a stroll, 
winding up at a quiet pleasant restaurant where 
they had supper. 

“ I’ve a lot of wild information,” Coe informed 
her; “ and I believe when it’s sifted out, we’ll 
find out things, decidedly important, if true ! ” 

“ Such as? ” Elsie asked, smiling at his im- 
petuous manner. 

“ I’ve had my minions out stirring up sleeping 
dogs, and by George, Miss Powell, they’ve 
wakened up some mighty funny curs! ” 

“ Tell me all about it,” and Elsie’s interest 
equalled Coley’s own. 

“ Well, to begin with, the Hen, Henrietta, is 
a most mysterious person. That is, she goes 
on most mysterious errands, secretly and alone.” 


Sleeping Dogs 


179 


“ To visit her brother ! In his concealment ! ” 
Elsie jumped at the conclusion. 

“ Dunno yet. Know where she goes, all right, 
— but not what for. But we’ll find out. Things 
are working. Then, Mrs. Webb, the old lady, 
she goes on private missions also. They’re a 
queer pair ! ” 

“ Doesn’t that seem as if they must have Mr. 
Webb hidden? Or, at least know where he is 
hiding? ” 

“ Looks a little that way, I admit. Then 
we’re trailing the Webb servants, you know. 
Well, Hollis seems all right, but Oscar’s a lame 
duck ! ” 

“ How?” 

“ He goes to the same place Miss Webb goes 
to, and he goes on the sly, too. I’ll get onto it, 
but I haven’t been able to do so yet.” 

“ Go on, — who else? ” 

“ Then there’s Mr. Courtney. I doubt there’s 
anything wrong about him, after all. I think 
he’s tickled to death at Mr. Webb’s disappear- 
ance for he’s fairly digging at his play, but I 
don’t think he had anything to do with the 
crime.” 

“ Crime? ” 

“ Sure. Abduction is a crime, — and I’m posi- 
tive that Kimball Webb never went away of his 
own initiative! Never!” 

“ I agree to that! What about Joe Allison? ” 


180 The Disappearance of Kimball Webb 

“ Can’t pin anything on him, — nor on Fenn 
Whiting.” 

“ I didn’t expect you would.” 

“ Well, I’m haying them both watched. Alli- 
son frequents second-hand jewellery shops, that’s 
the only queer thing about him.” 

“ You’re thinking of my diamond pendant.” 

“ I am. Maybe Mr. Webb has that with him, 
- — wherever he is, and then again maybe he 
hasn’t.” 

Elsie looked thoughtful. “ If the Webb ladies 
know where he is, they know where the diamonds 
are,” she declared. “ I can’t help thinking there 
may be a thief in the matter though. You see, 
he showed the diamonds at his dinner party, — 
oh, I don’t mean his guests, — but, maybe the 
waiters, — ” 

“ I’ve thrashed that all out, — and there’s small 
chance of burglary. If anybody had wanted to 
steal that valuable pendant, he wouldn’t have at- 
tempted to get away with the man at the same 
time! And, if anybody wanted to abduct the 
man, the diamonds would have been a secondary 
consideration. To be sure the abductor might 
have stolen them, — just because they were handy 
by, — but in that case, they won’t be on the mar- 
ket for a long time, and then, not here.” 

“ Then how do you mix Joe Allison with it 
all? ” 

“ I don’t know. But he’s such a good one to 



181 


Sleeping Dogs 

suspect.” Coley grinned, and tossed his brown 
mane back like a war horse, prancing. “ You 
see, if he can’t get the fortune, it’s a next best 
thing to get that big diamond haul. I’m told it 
was a pretty high-priced gewgaw.” 

“ Oh, it was. And the Webb ladies were mad 
as mad that Kimball bought it for me.” 

“ That’s not enough to stamp them as burglars, 
— but their disapproval of the match is quite 
enough to lay them open to suspicion as to the 
disappearance. And the necklace would be 
missing in either case.” 

“ Haven’t you done anything toward finding 
out how Kim got out of the locked room? ” 

“ Not a thing. If the Webb ladies made up 
that yarn, there’s no use worrying over it. And 
if they didn’t, I’ll know soon that they didn’t.” 

“ How? ” 

“ By finding out where their secret errands 
take them to.” 


CHAPTER XII 


COE’S CONCLUSIONS 

C OLEY Coe sat in his somewhat eccentric 
looking den, in an attitude characteristic 
of his working hours. He occupied a big over- 
stuffed chair, and while his head and shoulders 
rested on one of its wide arms, his feet and legs 
were draped carelessly over the other. His re- 
markable hair fountained out over his forehead 
and almost hid his eyes, which were fairly blink- 
ing in the earnestness of his thought. 

He was clearing out his always methodical 
mind, and tabulating his ideas as he went along. 

“ There are two distinct things to hunt for,” 
he said to himself ; “ first, Mr. Kimball Webb, 
and second the abductor of Mr. Kimball Webb. 
In fact it doesn’t matter which I find first, — one 
will doubtless lead to the other. Now, it’s prac- 
tically hopeless to hunt for Mr. Webb, for if he 
could have escaped his confinement, — granting 
that he is confined, — he would have been heard 
from before this. There’s the theory that he’s 
staying away willingly, but that I do not believe. 
Now, so far as I can see, there’s nobody likely to 
know anything about where he is, except the 
person or persons who put him there. And 
while his mother and sister are possible suspects, 


Coe’s Conclusions 


183 


they are not, to my mind, plausible ones. For, 
— oh, well, I just can’t see ’em in that light. 

“ Now, I’m also ready to cross off Wallace 
Courtney. He’s benefited largely by the absence 
of his rival playwright, but, even granting his 
willingness, I don’t see how he could have pulled 
it off. Owen Thorne is out of the question, also. 
Just because he is Elsie Powell’s trustee is no 
reason to think he would stick a finger in her 
romantic pie. As to his having played ducks 
and drakes with her money, and daren’t acknowl- 
edge it, I’ve yet to find any proof of that. So 
far as I can get hold of the facts, the Powell for- 
tune is in honest hands, and is intact and safe. 

“ Now, I’m left with mighty few people to sus- 
pect. And those few I propose to run down 
pretty quick. There’s just one element that’s 
bothering me and that’s the supernatural one. 
Those yarns that Kimball Webb told at his club 
are not to be passed over lightly, for as far as 
I can make out Mr. Webb is a pretty much worth- 
while chap. And judging from the line I’ve got 
on his character, he’s not the sort to tell those 
stories unless they were true. True that the 
things he related happened, I mean. Not true 
that they happened by supernatural forces. If 
there’s some sort of hocus-pocus possible in that 
room of Kimball Webb’s, that means somebody 
has access to it, when it’s apparently securely 
locked. It might be his mother, after all, — or 


184 The Disappearance of Kimball Webb 

that high and mighty sister. But Mrs. Webb 
is too sincerely a believer in the spirit business 
to fake it, and — well, it doesn't fit in with that 
scheme of things called Henrietta! 

“ But what it is, or what it may be, I've got 
to find out, — and that with neatness and 
dispatch." 

Disentangling himself from his easy chair, Coe 
put on his hat, and started out on his quest. 

But, according to his principle, “ when in 
doubt, go to Elsie’s," he went straight to the 
Powells' home. 

It was late afternoon, and he was not surprised 
to find the faithful pair, Allison and Whiting 
already there, and having tea. 

It was no secret now, that these two men were 
rivals for Elsie’s hand. Urged on by her mother 
and sister, strongly advised by the Webb ladies, 
and even besought by her trustee and guardian 
to marry before her birthday, the poor child felt 
she would be unable to combat their decrees 
much longer. 

The arguments that she was foolish to throw 
away a fortune, that she owed it to her mother 
and sister, that she’d be sorry afterward if she 
didn't, all had no effect on her personal inclina- 
tion, but they had the wearing action of con- 
stant dropping of water upon a stone, upon her 
-will. 

Her strong determination was giving way 


Coe’s Conclusions 


185 


under pressure and she had no one to bolster up 
her side of the decision. Even Coe, with his 
clear vision and good judgment, did not dare 
advise her against marriage, for he feared she 
might later regret her course. 

Yet, when alone, Elsie was as positive in her 
determination as ever, and vowed to herself 
that she would not be swayed by others, and that 
she would never marry if she could not marry the 
man she loved. 

And, then, Gerty’s pale, martyr-like face, or 
her mother’s gentle coaxing would so shake the 
poor child’s will power, that she wavered and 
almost allowed herself to be convinced. 

The great question was whom to marry. 
Gerty favoured Joe Allison, but Mrs. Powell in- 
clined toward Fenn Whiting. 

Gerty declared that Elsie could easily change 
Joe’s plan of a marriage after the birthday, if 
she made her consent conditional on an earlier 
date. For each day saw the young man more 
and more in love with Elsie, and he was rapidly 
approaching the stage where he would agree to 
anything if she would marry him. 

Fenn Whiting, adhered to his statement that 
it was for Elsie to say whether she would marry 
him, a rich girl or a poor one. For his part, he 
had no advice to offer in that regard. He 
wanted the girl; if she wanted the fortune, all 
right, — if not, all right, also. 


186 The Disappearance of Kimball Webb 

This was the only manly attitude for Whiting 
to take, but, as Gerty observed, there could be 
no possible reason for Elsie to throw away the 
money if she concluded to marry Fenn. 

Elsie wouldn’t say what she would or wouldn’t 
do. She went around — as one in a daze ; 
hoping against hope that something would tran- 
spire to give her some idea of what had happened 
to Kimball Webb. 

And so, when Coe came in, bright and cheery 
as always, she turned to him with renewed hope 
and cried out: 

“ Anything new? ” 

“Nixy; except that I have crossed off some 
suspects and I’m going to cross off some more. 
Elimination’s the thing ! ” 

“ Go on,” cried Elsie, “ tell me what.” 

“ Well, next, I’m going to sleep in that room 
of Mr. Webb’s. Do you suppose the powers that 
be will permit it? ” 

“ I don’t see why not,” offered Whiting. 
“What’s the great idea?” 

“ I want to see if the Poltergeist snatch off 
my bedclothes, or any stunt like that.” 

“ I can’t see that it would get you anywhere,” 
Whiting laughed, “ but there’s no harm in 
it.” 

“It’s a good plan,” Allison said, slowly. 
“ That Poltergeist business is the real thing. 
I’ve looked into those subjects, more or less, and 


Coe’s Conclusions 187 

I’m interested. Let me spend a night there with 
you, will you, Coe? ” 

“ Not the first trip. I don’t look for anything 
to happen, but it might and I want to tackle it 
alone.” 

“ What are you going to prove? ” asked Gerty, 
puzzled. 

“ Only that if a Poltergeist comes after me, 
and I can’t catch him, that there’s a possibility 
that one carried off Kimball Webb.” 

“ Rubbish ! ” said Whiting. 

“ Rubbish, I admit,” said Coe, placidly, “ but 
what’s a theory that isn’t rubbish? ” 

Nobody knew of any, and Coe soon departed 
for the Webb home to put his plan in action. 

The Webb ladies liked the pleasant young man, 
with his winning smile and his good natured 
ways. 

His request to sleep for a night’or two in Kim- 
ball Webb’s room met with a willing, though 
surprised consent. 

“ What in the world do you hope to learn that 
way?” Mrs. Webb asked, and Coley returned, 
gravely : “ I want to test your theory, Mrs. 

Webb. If friend Poltergeist,— is that his name? 
— carries me through a closed and locked 
wooden door, I’m ready to drop all else and fol- 
low your cult for life ! ” 

“ You’re going to lock the door? ” asked Hen- 
rietta. 


188 The Disappearance of Kimball Webb 

“ Surely, otherwise it’s no test! All New 
York city, — I mean any one of its inhabitants, 
might come in and play at poltering otherwise. 
Of course, I’m going to lock the door and bolt it, 
too.” 

The broken lock on the inside of Kimball 
Webb’s door had been replaced with a new one, 
for no special reason save that the Webb ladies 
were too orderly by nature to leave anything in- 
complete in the way of household appointments. 

And so, when that night, Coley Coe locked 
himself into the mysterious room, he was securely 
entrenched against attack from the hall. 

He scrutinized the window fastenings and 
corroborated his knowledge that the patent catch 
enabled one to get sufficient ventilation, yet left 
no possible chance of a man entering or escaping 
that way. 

Coley Coe locked himself into that room at 
ten-thirty, at one o’clock he was still hunting for 
the secret entrance that he had been so sure of 
finding. But his search had been utterly fruit- 
less, and in an unusual spirit of despair, he de- 
cided to abandon it. He arrived at this decision 
only after a most exhaustive and repeated inves- 
tigation of every part of the room. He proved 
to his own satisfaction that there was not a break 
in the walls, not a chance of a secret passage 
between the partitions. 

He made sure the window frames or door 


Coe’s Conclusions 


189 


frames could not be taken out bodily, as a whole. 
The old woodwork was as firm and true as when 
it was built, many decades before. 

“ And yet,” Coley observed to himself, “ there’s 
got to be a secret entrance, — there’s got to be! 
There’s no other w T ay out ! ” 

He smiled at his inadvertent play on words, 
and renewed his search. He paid special atten- 
tion to the chimney, for except the windows and 
door that was the only outlet from the room. 

It was a large fireplace, of the old fashioned 
style. There was an empty and scrupulously 
clean basket grate, wide but not deep, with hori- 
zontal bars in front after the fashion of most 
old grates. The black japanned parts were shin- 
ing, and the gilded rim round the fireplace 
opening was brilliantly bright. Surely the 
Webbs had been scrupulous in their tidying up 
of Kimball’s room. 

Coe looked about. The white paint was im- 
maculate, the window panes fairly sparkled with 
cleanliness. He gave a sigh, — any clue that 
might have been left in that room must have been 
destroyed by the ruthless hands of the Webbs’ 
servants. 

Coe poked his head well up the chimney, to 
the imminent peril of his waving forelocks, but 
the flue was not sooty at all. Neither was it in 
any way a possible means of escape. Coe’s 
imagination was well nigh boundless, but he 


190 The Disappearance of Kimball Webb 


couldn’t, by the wildest flight of fancy, see Kim- 
ball Webb making an exit that way. It was 
simply impossible. 

He sat in a chair and strove to reconstruct the 
scene. Webb, perhaps, had sat in that very 
chair, the night before the day that was to have 
been his wedding day. Coe knew that Webb had 
every intention of attending his own wedding. 
He had learned from Elsie the indubitable truths 
of the man’s character and of his love for the girl 
he had chosen. Not for a minute did Coley Coe 
think Webb had absconded purposely. 

And abduction presupposed one other person 
at least. How did that person get in, — and 
accompanied by Webb, get out? 

“ He couldn’t,” Coe decided, and then turned 
his attention to the idea that Webb had been 
lured away, — say, by means of an imperative 
message. 

But that made the exit from the locked room 
no easier of solution, and Coley Coe gave it up, 
and turned in for the night. 

As he stretched himself between the sheets 
of Kimball Webb’s bed, he realized there was no 
night light, as is usual in modern houses. 

He thought of going down stairs for a candle, 
but concluded that the switch of the centre chan- 
delier was within two jumps of his bedside and 
depended on that. 


Coe’s Conclusions 


191 


He thought of leaving the light on, but 
assumed that that would bar the intruder, — 
human or supernatural, — who, he felt sure, 
would come. 

Worn out by his hard thinking and his long 
and indefatigable searching, the healthy young 
chap was soon asleep. 

How long he slept, he had no idea, but he 
awoke suddenly, with a feeling of something 
happening. 

He rubbed his sleepy eyes, and saw plainly, 
though not clearly, a strange light at the foot 
of the bed. It seemed to be a wraith or phan- 
tom, of translucent, shimmering light. 

Wide awake in an instant, Coe sprang out of 
bed and switched on the light. 

There was nothing, absolutely nothing unusual 
in the room. 

Nothing had been moved, nothing disturbed. 

Coe ran about the room frantically. Not for 
a minute did he believe he had been dreaming 
or imagined the vision. He had just as surely 
seen that white, glimmering apparition as he now 
saw his own hand. He knew it, — and he knew 
too, it was some human agency that had com- 
passed it. No supernatural for him! That 
ghost was the work of some mischievous or 
wicked human, and who it was Coley Coe deter- 
mined to discover. 


192 The Disappearance of Kimball Webb 

He determined to have another try at it some 
other night, for, he felt sure, there would be 
no further performance at this time. 

He switched oft the light, and went back to 
bed, feeling that he had at least accomplished 
something in having had any experience at all. 

Again he slept, — and, again he awakened. 

This time, he saw nothing. The room was 
pitch dark, but, — and his thatch of hair rose 
from his forehead, — he could certainly feel his 
bed clothes being pulled off! 

He lay still a moment, unable to believe his 
senses, but there was no mistake, they were cer- 
tainly slipping down, — down, away from his 
neck, his shoulders, — and then, as he gathered 
himself for a spring, they were pulled entirely 
off of him, and thrown back, helter-skelter over 
his face and head. 

A low, and it seemed to him, demoniac 
chuckle reached his ears, and struggling to free 
himself from the entangling sheets and blankets, 
he finally got to the light switch and threw it 
on. 

Again there was nothing to be seen, — nothing 
to be heard, of any human presence. 

Coley sat down in the big chair, lighted a 
cigarette and began to size the matter up. 

He thought a while, and then he again went 
the rounds of the room, only to find no more 


Coe’s Conclusions 193 

sign of a secret entrance than he had before dis- 
covered. 

What was the explanation? Must he accept 
the foolish Poltergeist? He knew, — his reason 
told him, no supernatural agency could have 
pulled oft those bedclothes and thrown them 
back over his face, but his reason failed to inform 
him who or what could have done it, — and above 
all how. 

The door was still securely locked and bolted. 
The windows were untouched, — Coe knew this, 
for he had taken the precaution to sprinkle a 
little talcum powder beneath them, and this 
showed no marks of foot-prints. He looked up 
the chimney, where he had pasted across a strip 
of paper, just before he got into bed. The paper 
was intact. 

In the brownest of brown studies he sat till 
morning, but he could imagine or invent no 
theory that would work. He knew, — he posi- 
tively knew the semi-luminous ghost was a fake, 
— he knew, he positively knew human hands 
had pulled off his sheets, and a human throat 
had sounded that low laugh, but how? — HOW? 

At breakfast time he dressed and went down 
stairs. 

He met Miss Webb’s eager questions as to 
what had happened with a denial that anything 
had. He wanted to see if a look of surprise or 


194 The Disappearance of Kimball Webb 

incredulity came to her face, but it didn’t. She 
only said, 

“ I scarcely thought it would. Are you satis- 
fied, or do you want to try it again? ” 

“ I may try it again later,” he thanked her, 
“ but not at present.” 

To Mrs. Webb who soon appeared he also de- 
nied that he had had any queer or inexplicable 
experience, having resolved to keep the matter 
strictly secret as the best chance of finding out 
who did it. 

But at breakfast, the subject of Kimball’s past 
experiences in that room was mentioned. 

“ I don’t believe it,” Henrietta stated calmly. 
“ Oh, Kimball told the truth, of course, or what 
he thought was truth. He dreamed so vividly 
that he really thought his dream was true. 
I am more convinced than ever, — since you saw 
or heard nothing unusual. Did you have any 
peculiar dreams? ” 

“ No,” Coley said, truthfully. “ I did not. 
I’m positive I did not.” 

After breakfast, Coe went straight to Elsie. 
They went for a stroll in the Park, a not unusual 
proceeding with them, and he told her the whole 
story, for his plan of secrecy did not include the 
girl he was working for. 

“ It must be supernatural,” Elsie said, after 
she had heard the whole tale. “ I’m ready to be- 
lieve you when you say there’s no chance for any 


Coe’s Conclusions 


195 


one to get in, — so it’s got to be spirits, or Polter- 
geist, or what ever you choose to call it. I’m no 
Spiritualist, — I think the whole thing is silly, 
— but what are we to think, after this? ” 

“ We’re to think that somebody is too clever 
for me.” 

“ But lots of people have tried to find a secret 
entrance, and they can’t do it. Mr. Hanley said 
he was a sort of an architect, and Fenn Whiting 
is an architect, and they’ve both tried their best 
but they can’t find any loophole of escape. I 
tried, too, — oh, you needn’t laugh. Sometimes 
an ignoramus can succeed where the wiseacres 
fail.” 

“ I know it ; but, look here, Miss Powell. Sup- 
posing, just for argument’s sake, that there is 
somebody back of it all, — some master-mind 
criminal who has made a way to get in and out 
of that rocm at his will, defying discovery, then 
you must admit, we’re up against it.” 

“How? What do you mean?” 

“ I mean that I can’t find the way he enters or 
leaves. I spent many hours last night seeking 
the means, and I admit I can’t succeed. There’s 
no use my trying again, for I went over every 
square inch of walls, floor and ceiling. I con- 
sidered every plausible method or manner of en- 
trance, and I’m at the end of my rope in that 
direction. If solving the mystery of Webb’s dis- 
appearance depends on finding a secret entrance 


196 The Disappearance of Kimball Webb 

to that room, I confess I’ll have to give it up.” 

“ Do you think it does depend on that? ” 

“ Frankly, I do.” 

“ Then are we to give up all hope of seeing 
Kimball Webb again? ” Elsie’s lips quivered, 
and Coe was so sorry for her he scarce knew what 
to say. But he had to tell her the truth. 

“ I fear we are, until after your birthday, at 
least.” 

“ Do you think he’ll return after that? ” 

“ I can’t say. You see we haven’t decided 
definitely on the motive of the person or persons 
who abducted him. If the Webb ladies, and it 
may be, then they hope you’ll marry before the 
date, and he will then return. If not the Webb 
ladies, — then, — the motive is a very different 
one.” 

“ Meantime what do you advise me to do? ” 

“ I am not going to give up entirely, — but I 
have to confess to you that I’m not sure I can 
discover a criminal who is so deep and so clever 
as this one.” 

“ You’ve been trailing the Webb ladies, what 
did you learn? ” 

“ Nothing, so far, that affects the case, — and 
I doubt if we do. To tell the truth, Miss Powell, 
I’m discouraged, — deeply discouraged. I can’t 
solve the mystery of last night, so how can I 
solve the mystery of Webb’s disappearance — 


Coe’s Conclusions 197 

for I am positive the same agency compassed 
both.” 

“ Well, I’m ready to believe it was a super- 
natural agency. I never was before, but what 
you’ve told me convinces me. After all, lots of 
great and wise men believe in it — ” 

“ Lots of great and wise fools! Pardon me, 
Miss Powell, but I’d rather be baffled by any 
human cleverness than to admit the possibility 
of superhuman intervention.” 

“ But that doesn’t help matters, Mr. Coe. 
Your preferences don’t solve mysteries, — your 
disbelief doesn’t help to find the truth- I’m van- 
quished, — I’m ready to go over to the other side. 
I’ll accept the theory of Poltergeist or disem- 
bodied spirits or levitation or anything, now 
that you tell me a human being couldn’t get into 
that room ! ” 

“ But a human being did ! ” 

“ You only assume that because you’re not wil- 
ling to believe the other. Anyway, I can see 
you have no hope of restoring my lover to me? ” 
“ I can’t say I’ve a definite hope, — that is a 
hope founded on belief, — but of course, I hope.” 

“ Oh, that kind of hope, — merely a wish or 
desire, — that doesn’t mean anything ! ” 

Not blaming Coe, but deeply disappointed, 
Elsie turned her thoughts to duty. Her torn, 
bleeding heart knew at last the meaning of the 


198 The Disappearance of Kimball Webb 

word despair. Yet her unselfish nature would 
not let her forget those dependent upon her. 
And so she made up her mind what she would do. 

That night Fenn Whiting renewed his suit. 

“ Have you any hope of Kimball’s return? ” 
he asked, gently. 

“ No,” Elsie returned in a low voice, devoid of 
all inflection, “no, Fenn, I haven’t.” 

“ Then, oh, Elsie, won’t you marry me? 
Won’t you, dearest? Set the date yourself, — 
you know I don’t care about that confounded 
money, — but give me your promise.” 

“ I suppose I may as well,” she said, slowly. 

“Elsie, darling! do you mean it? You make 
me so happy. When, dearest, when?” 

“ I’m going to marry you, Fenn, in time to get 
the money, for Mother and Gerty’s sake. So, 
I’ll set the day before my birthday, — the 
twenty-ninth of June.” 

“ Darling ! Oh, Elsie, I can hardly believe it.” 

“Yes; I mean it. And, Fenn, as soon as the 
ceremony is over; and as soon as I have signed 
the necessary papers to leave the fortune to 
Mother and Gerty, with a good bit for Joe Al- 
lison, — I shall kill myself.” 


CHAPTER XIII 


THE EXPECTED LETTER 

F ENN WHITING was not unversed in femi- 
nine ways. And, especially did he count 
himself familiar with the ways of Elsie Powell. 
And though the average woman would make a 
threat of killing herself as a melodramatic bluff, 
not so Elsie. Whiting knew, for a certainty, if 
she had made up her mind to such a desperate 
step, she would assuredly take it. No interfer- 
ence or hindrance could prevent her. She might 
be foiled in several attempts but she would suc- 
ceed finally, if she had set her face that way. 
And she had. Further conversation only re- 
vealed the depth and steadfastness of her pur- 
pose. She was willing to die for her mother 
and sister but not to live for them. 

“ But, Elsie, darling,” Whiting urged, “ I can’t 
marry you that way. You must choose some one 
else, then. Could you live with Allison? ” 

“No! I couldn’t live with any man except 
Kimball Webb. And I never will! But my 
people have hounded me about that money, until 
I can’t stand it another minute. I must marry 
before my birthday, in order that they may get 
it, — but I don’t have to live on after that!” 


200 The Disappearance of Kimball Webb 

The big brown eyes were wide with despair, and 
the suffering, hunted look on Elsie’s face went to 
Whiting’s heart. 

“ Marry rue, dearest,” he said, softly; “ I’ll 
engage that you sha’n’t kill yourself afterward. 
Why, sweetheart, I’ll make life a continuous 
round of pleasure for you; you shall have your 
own way in everything — everything ! I’ll be 
your humble slave, and you may command 
me — ” 

“ Hush, Fenn. I’ve told you the course I shall 
take. Now, I think I may as well marry you as 
any one else. Then I’ll be legally entitled to the 
money. I’ve made a will, which I must sign 
after I’m married, — and then — ” 

“ Don’t, Elsie! You’re talking rubbish! 
Girls don’t kill themselves so easily, with friends 
around to prevent.” 

“ Never mind about that,” Elsie smiled mys- 
teriously, “ the way is already provided. And I 
shall make no horrible scene, I shall merely go 
away from this horrid, horrid world ! ” 

“ But I shall transform the horrid world into 
a world of light and flowers and love ! Give me 
a chance, Elsie, let me prove my words — ” 

“ Don’t discuss it, Fenn,” Elsie was imperious, 
“ you know nothing of my heart, — you couldn’t 
even appreciate my feelings if you knew them. 
But I do like you, and you are a friend. Marry 
me, then, and the rest is in my hands.” 


The Expected Letter 201 

“No; Elsie. I refuse to marry you under 
such conditions. What man would? ” 

“ That’s the trouble, — no man would ! That’s 
why I’ve decided on you, as my only hope. 
Marry me, Fenn, to save the money for my 
people. I’ll leave you a goodly share, too — ” 

“ Elsie ! ” Whiting’s look made her flush. 

“ Well,” she defended herself, “ that’s only 
fair, if you’re my husband.” 

“ But I won’t be, — I can’t be, — the way you’ve 
arranged things ! ” 

“ Yes, you can, and you will ! Don’t desert 
me, Fenn, it’s the only thing you can do for me. 
I’d marry some one else, and not tell my plans, — 
but I don’t think it fair to any man.” 

“ I should say not ! ” 

“ But you, — you have always been a friend of 
Kim’s and I want you to be friend enough of 
mine to go through the ceremony wuth me, and 
for me. Why, Fenn, there’s no way for me to 
get that money without marrying, — and no way 
else, to secure the happiness of my people.” 

“ If only Gerty would marry Joe, — ” 

“ That would fix it all right, — but in the first 
place, Gert wouldn’t marry anybody just yet, — 
it’s too soon, — and, oh, Fenn, it’s an awful thing 
to tell, but I sounded Joe, — and he — he doesn’t 
want to marry Gerty.” 

“ Of course he doesn’t ! He’s insanely in love 
with you ! ” 


202 The Disappearance of Kimball Webb 

“ I know it, — and lie’s too nice a boy for me 
to marry him and then — and then carry out 
my plan.” 

“ So’m I, for that matter! ” Whiting tried to 
speak jocularly. 

“ I know you are, — any man would be. But, 
you’re my only hope. I’ve thought this thing out 
to the bitter end. Whoever took Kimball away 
has killed him. That I am sure of.” 

“ Oh, no, Elsie, I don’t believe that.” 

“ I know it. He isn’t in this world. And so, 
I want to go where he is, — I don’t care where 
that may be.” 

Elsie’s gaze was a little wild, her voice a trifle 
hysterical, but she was in complete control of her 
speech. 

“ Well, let’s wait a bit, anyway. There’s 
nearly three weeks yet before the birthday, and 
in that time you may hear something from Kim.” 

“ No, I won’t. And I’d rather get it over with. 
Marry me at once, — won’t you, Fenn?” 

“ Well, for a young woman whom I’ve begged 
and coaxed to marry me, it’s turning the tables 
to have you urging me to marry you ! ” 

“All the same, — will you? ” 

“ Not this week. Do wait a few days, and 
consider matters a little more fully. I promise 
to tell nobody of this plan of yours, so you can 
revise it when you wish. But, oh, Elsie, — my 


The Expected Letter 203 

little girl, — if you’ll marry me and stay right 
here on earth with me, — I’ll engage to make 
earth a heaven for you ! ” 

“ Nobody could do that but Kimball,” and 
Elsie’s eyes filled with tears. 

True to his promise, Whiting told no one of 
Elsie’s gruesome plan. For, he decided, to tell 
her mother or sister would only stir up trouble 
in their household. And he hoped Elsie would 
change her mind. It was a forlorn hope, for 
the girl was so positive in her decisions and was 
rarely if ever known to change one. He thought 
of telling it all to Coley Coe, but decided against 
it, for he could see no use in passing the hateful 
secret on to anybody. 

Any other woman he would have expected to 
weaken when the time came for the tragic deed. 
But he knew Elsie’s determination well enough 
to believe that she had the means already at hand, 
— poison, probably, — and that if prevented sev- 
eral times, would finally manage to turn the 
trick. 

The more Whiting thought it over, the more 
he was convinced he would marry her. If he 
didn’t, she would pick up somebody else and 
marry him without telling her plan, — for she 
could never secure a bridegroom who was in her 
confidence. Then, he argued, he would stand a 
better chance of persuading her to give up her 


204 The Disappearance of Kimball Webb 

tragic course, than if be were not her husband. 
He thought he could watch her so closely that 
she would have no chance for a time, at least, and 
then if he couldn’t persuade her to live for him 
and with him, he could offer her the privilege of 
divorcing him, — and the money, the great object 
in Elsie’s dilemma, would be all right. 

So Whiting determined that if nothing tran- 
spired to change the situation he would soon 
urge Elsie to announce their engagement, and 
trust to Fate that all might yet turn out well. 

Elsie, after her talk with Whiting felt better 
than she had done since her sorrow came to her. 
She was filled with an exaltation that buoyed 
her spirit up, and she went around as one in a 
trance. 

It may be that her strange experiences had af- 
fected her brain a little but except for a slight 
absent-mindedness she showed no eccentric im- 
pulses. 

And then, in her morning’s mail she received 
a letter. 

A letter that she had sub-consciously looked 
for, — a letter she had vaguely expected, — a 
letter from the people who had stolen Kimball 
Webb! 

Realizing its purport, she went off to her own 
room to read it by herself. 

Written in a strong, bold hand, on decent, in- 
conspicuous paper, it read : 


The Expected Letter 205 

Miss Elsie Powell: 

We have Kimball Webb hidden and in con- 
finement. Where he is neither you nor your 
smarty-cat young detective can ever discover. 
We make no secret of the fact that we abducted 
him for ransom. How we secured his person, 
though a clever performance, will never be known 
by any one, — not even himself. The whole point 
of this message is, do you want him back enough 
to pay us fifty thousand dollars, — and no ques- 
tions asked? If so, follow our directions im- 
plicitly, — if not, the incident may be considered 
closed and neither you nor any one else will ever 
see the gentleman in question again. We are 
no bunglers, we have covered our tracks, and 
have no fear of being caught. If you want to 
pay the money and if you are willing to agree not 
to refer this matter to anybody, not to speak of 
it to your people or to the police, you may hang} 
a white towel, — or a handkerchief out of a win- 
dow of your own room any time tomorrow after- 
noon. This will be taken to mean that you agree 
to our terms. If you play any tricks, Mr. Webb 
will vanish at once from this world of ours. We 
enclose a bit of a note from him that you may 
have faith in the reality of our story. 

The letter was not signed, but the enclosure 
was. It was from Kimball himself, — there was 
no mistaking his small, scholarly writing, and 


206 The Disappearance of Kimball Webb 

even before reading it, Elsie pressed it to her lips 
in a frenzy of joy. Then she read: 

Elsie, darling! do as the note says. It is the 
only way. I love you ! Kim. 

It was no forgery, every word, every letter was 
the work of the hand of Kimball Webb. Elsie 
knew his writing too well to be deceived. And 
there were peculiar little quirks and twirls that 
made it impossible for the note to be a forgery. 

It was the real thing! And, noting the date 
on the letter, Elsie suddenly bethought her that 
today was the day to hang out her flag of truce ! 
Her white handkerchief, — no, a small towel 
would be more visible, — must be displayed that 
very afternoon. 

Quivering with excitement, she got out the 
towel, and was of half a mind to hang it out at 
once, but desisted, as she wished to follow in- 
structions implicitly. 

How to get all that money troubled her not a 
whit. She hadn’t a tenth of it at her command, 
but get it she would, if she had to break a bank ! 
And then she began to think. A wild suggestion 
of breaking a bank meant nothing, — she couldn’t 
do it, with all the will in the world. And how 
could she get it from Mr. Thorne unless she told 
her story? And if she did that, — the writer of 
the note would find it out, — already she pictured 
him in her mind as omniscient, — and the whole 
deal would be off ! 


The Expected Letter 207 

But, even with no plan for getting the money, 
she obeyed the written instructions. She told 
no one of the letter. That afternoon she hung 
out a small towel, and it hung undisturbed until 
sundown. 

Then next morning she received the second 
letter. 

This one was as explicit as the first. 

Miss Powell: 

Glad to see you’re amenable to reason. Now, 
you may have plenty of ways to raise the cash, 
but if not, use the enclosed card. You may go 
to that address without fear of any unpleasant- 
ness or publicity. Remember, if you give us the 
money as we direct, you will have your lover in 
time for you to secure your inheritance by mar- 
riage with him. Here are the directions. You 
will not hear from us again. Have the money 
in cash, with no bill larger than one hundred dol- 
lars. Go to Altman’s tomorrow morning, and 
when you come out, take a taxicab that will be 
waiting. You will know which one when you 
see a driver with a yellow plaid cap. We are 
relying on you not to have anybody with you, or 
in watching, — if you do, we shall know it, and 
the whole deal is off. You will not hear from 
us again. If you attempt anything, — anything 
at all but the most perfect good faith and honesty 
in your course, you will be more than sorry. In 


208 The Disappearance of Kimball Webb 

a word, you will then bring about the sudden 
death of the man you love. There is no more to 
be said on that score. Get into the taxi and 
when it stops, near another taxi, make a quick 
change. Have the money with you in a small 
compact parcel. The second taxi will take you 
along a certain road. When it meets a certain 
car, it will slow down and you will hand the 
parcel to the man who leans out of that car for 
it. That is all. Good-bye. 

Elsie read and re-read the missive. 

She w T as uncertain what to do. Her impulse 
was to lay the whole matter before Whiting or 
Coleman Coe, and follow their advice. 

But suppose they should say, — as so many 
people do, — make no bargains w T ith the kidnap- 
pers. Treat any such communications with 
silent contempt, — or, arrange for police protec- 
tion, even if it is forbidden. 

The more she thought it over, the more she 
was inclined to manage the whole affair alone. 
She could do it, — and she was not afraid. It 
was all to be done in broad daylight, there was 
no danger if she herself acted in good faith. 
And if she brought any one else into it, there was 
grave danger, not only to herself but to Kimball. 

She looked curiously at the card that had 
come in the letter. 

It was an address on Broadway, and was evi- 


The Expected Letter 209 

dently, — even to her inexperienced mind, — the 
office of a loan broker. 

From him she could get the necessary money 
on the assurance of her nearby wedding and con- 
sequent inheritance. Arrangements had, of 
course, been made by the perpetrators of the 
crime against Kimball Webb. They must be a 
clever and powerful set, — they were so unafraid 
of anything or anybody. The thought of her 
restored lover and their wedding at last, so 
thrilled Elsie, that she began preparations at 
once. 

She could scarcely control her impatience to 
get to the broker’s office. 

Once there, she found indeed, that all had 
been arranged. 

The affable Hebrew, who presided over the 
establishment, was confidentially minded, and 
was quite ready to advance the large sum re- 
quired in return for Elsie’s signed promise to 
pay, — with exorbitant interest, the day after her 
marriage. 

For Elsie Powell and her affairs were well 
known to newspaper readers and the affable Jew 
felt no qualms of doubt as to his future reim- 
bursement and his usury. 

The parcel, made up neatly and inconspicu- 
ously, was handed to Elsie and her signed docu- 
ment carefully put away in a big safe. 

The transaction meant little to Elsie, herself, 


210 The Disappearance of Kimball Webb 

so wrapped up was her whole soul in her coming 
adventure. 

She would get Kimball back! That was all 
she knew or cared about! 

She went to Altman’s, her precious package in 
her handbag, which she carried with seeming 
carelessness, but with a watchful eye. 

She had a strange feeling of security because 
of the character and appearance of the notes she 
had received. Had they been illiterate scrawls 
she would have hesitated to go ahead as she had 
done, but the educated and socially correct tone 
of the letters gave her the impression of brains 
and character, however big a villain the writer 
might be. 

With a beating heart, but with a steady step 
she came out of Altman’s shop and seemed to 
glance casually about for a cab. 

Seeing a driver with a yellow plaid cap, she 
beckoned him and got into his cab. 

No word was spoken as she settled herself on 
the seat, and watched the man start the car. 

He, too, was nonchalant of manner, and drove 
away toward Madison Avenue. 

From there they followed a devious course, 
turning often, returning on their own tracks, 
wheeling suddenly, performing various eccentric 
detours, all, doubtless in an endeavour to detect 
a follower, if any. 

Elsie sat quietly, unmoved by these strange 


The Expected Letter 211 

motions, and full of buoyant hope that all would 
be well, since she had not betrayed her trust. 

After a time the taxicab stopped at a curb, 
another cab drew up at its side, and Elsie 
stepped from one to the other. 

The second cab had also a taciturn, grave- 
faced driver. Though he said no word, gave no 
look of intelligence, Elsie felt a sense of safety 
with him, from his very silence. She was free 
from all fear, and looked forward eagerly to the 
consummation of her errand. 

This time it was a long drive. On they went, 
northward from the city and into a pleasant, 
wooded locality. Swiftly the car flew and after 
an hour’s journey they were on a smooth road, 
with groves of trees on either side. But it was 
a travelled road, and its well-kept asphalt pro- 
claimed its nearness to civilization. 

Elsie kept her eyes open and her mind clear. 
She grew impatient for the end of her trip, but 
she preserved her poise and her balance. 

“ Here’s the car, miss,” the taxi driver said 
suddenly, and she saw a red roadster approach- 
ing swiftly. 

Both cars slowed down and then stopped. 

From the red car a man leaned out. He had 
a small mask on that concealed most of his 
features, but Elsie caught a gleam of many gold 
filled teeth in his lower jaw. Into his out- 
stretched hand, conveniently near, Elsie placed 


212 The Disappearance of Kimball Webb 

the packet, from her hand-bag. She felt a shock 
of disappointment that she did not receive Kim- 
ball in return, right then and there, but she had 
no time to speak. In a flash, the driver on the 
cab she was in, sprang from his seat, jumped into 
the red car, and like a streak the roadster dis- 
appeared. 

Alone, in a driverless taxicab, Elsie sat, unable 
for a moment to realize what had happened. 

Slowly it dawned upon her that she had been 
tricked, — swindled, — but no, she couldn’t be- 
lieve that ! She felt sure that the men had only 
carried out their plans for safety. That they 
feared pursuit and had made off with the money 
and w r ould restore Kimball in their own good 
time, she had no doubt. The thing was, now, 
how was she to get home? 

She wasn’t greatly alarmed, for the well-kept 
road gave hope of frequent travellers, and some- 
body would take her back to New York. 

And, after a time, somebody did. She let 
several cars pass before she asked help, and 
though curious looks were cast at her, no one in- 
truded upon her. But when she saw a car come 
by, with a good chauffeur, and a benignant 
looking lady in the tonneau, she asked for a ride 
to New York. 

The benignant looking lady was not all that 
could be hoped for in the way of cordiality, but 
when Elsie explained that the taxicab had re- 


The Expected Letter 213 

fused to go and the chauffeur had gone for help 
and that she was in great haste to get to the city 
the lady agreed to take her. Remarking, how- 
ever, that for a girl who wanted to get to New 
York in haste, her cab was turned astonishingly 
in the opposite direction! 

But Elsie’s smile and winning manner soon 
overcame the other’s asperity, and they were 
affably chatting long before they reached the 
city. 

Naturally enough, the kind lady asked the 
name of her passenger, but Elsie, knowing the 
necessity for caution, gave an assumed name 
and address and made up a story of her life that 
w r as as plausible as it was false. 

But she dared take no chances on breaking her 
pledge of inviolate secrecy, lest she lose her 
chance of getting Kimball back, and after all 
she had gone through, that would be unbear- 
able. 

She asked to be set down at the Grand Central 
Station, as she was going back to her home, — 
avowedly in Boston, — that night. 

Warmly friendly by this time, the benignant 
lady set her down as requested, after exacting a 
promise to hear from her by letter. 

Alone again, Elsie flew for a taxicab and went 
straight home. She glanced at the mail, arrived 
since her departure, but was not surprised to 
find no letter in the writing of her new corre- 


214 The Disappearance of Kimball Webb 

spondent. He had said he would not write 
again, and she did not think he would. 

She had nothing to do now, but wait. She 
had conscientiously fulfilled her part of the bar- 
gain, and she had utter faith that the abductors 
of Kimball would do the same. They had their 
money — what more did they want? 

She waited all that evening, dully patient, 
quietly serene of manner, but with a heart that 
beat wildly when the door bell or telephone 
sounded. 

Occasionally, she telephoned to the Webb 
house, hardly thinking Kimball would go there 
before coming to her, but unable to resist general 
inquiry. 

At bedtime, she had heard nothing from him, 
and resolved to go to bed and to sleep in happy 
hopes of a blessed meeting tomorrow. 

She could not sleep, — slumber does not come 
for the willing of it and as she tossed in wide 
awake suspense, her thoughts took a new turn. 

Suppose, — just suppose she had been tricked ! 
Suppose the notes had not come from the men 
who stole Kimball, — ah, they must have done 
so! She had Kim’s note to prove it! Nothing 
ever could make her believe that note a forgery. 
She knew his dear writing too well — she knew 
every stroke of his pen, every peculiarity of his 
really unusual handwriting, and she felt in every 


The Expected Letter 


215 


letter of that note that he himself had penned 
it. There was no chance that he had not. 
Therefore, the letters from the kidnappers were 
in good faith. They proved the fact that Kim- 
ball had been abducted, — and held for ransom. 
Well, now they had the ransom, and Kim would 
be returned. Of course he would! She would 
not think otherwise, or she would die! She 
knew he would come tomorrow, — and in that 
knowledge she at last fell asleep. 

She awoke with a start. Throwing on her 
night light, she found it was three o’clock in the 
morning. She felt a strange numbness of mind, 
a peculiar feeling as if the end of the world had 
come. Striving to determine what it all meant, 
she realized that she had lost hope, — that she 
was now persuaded that she had been tricked. 
The notes were from the kidnappers but they 
had no intention of returning her lover ! 

Something, she could not tell what, brought 
the conviction to her soul that she had done very 
wrong in following their bidding blindly in 
giving them the money on such uncertainty. 
She remembered clearly the smile of the man in 
the red car, — the smile that had disclosed those 
gold-filled teeth, and she knew she had been 
duped, deceived and swindled! 


CHAPTER XIV 


AN EASY MARK 

T HOUGH slow to anger, Elsie was a little 
firebrand when roused. And the more she 
thought over the matter the more furious she 
grew at the game that had been played on her. 
The fact that she brought it all upon herself 
only made her more angry. 

And, yet, she didn’t blame herself utterly, for 
she had felt so sure that only by following in- 
structions implicitly, could she accomplish her 
end. 

She didn’t for a moment believe that some 
one had tricked her who knew nothing of Kim- 
ball Webb, for she had his own letter to disprove 
that. She concluded they had tricked him, too, 
and had forced him to write the note and then 
had cheated him as they had her. 

Still, he might come home yet; the day might 
bring him or news of him. 

But when the slow hours passed and morn- 
ing melted into afternoon, poor Elsie gave up 
hope. 

By the time Coe came in the evening, Elsie 
had decided to tell him the whole story, assum- 
216 


An Easy Mark 217 

in g that since the money was paid, it was now 
no breach of trust. 

Coley Coe stared at her as she unfolded the 
surprising tale. 

“You chump! You Easy Mark!” he cried, 
angrily, quite forgetting in his astonishment to 
whom he was speaking. 

“ I beg your pardon,” he said, as he noted her 
rising colour. “ I oughtn’t to say such things, 
— but, oh, Miss Powell, how could you go off 
on such a wild-goose chase, — and a dangerous 
one, too? ” 

His thatch of hair bobbed wildly about in 
his excitement, and he clutched at it as if 
almost frenzied. 

Then he calmed down, and looked at the thing 
squarely. His blue eyes seemed to grow darker 
as their concentrated gaze fell on Elsie’s 
troubled face. 

“ It’s outrageous ! ” he cried, “ it’s a shame, 
but, Miss Powell, the villains may have over- 
reached themselves. They may have started 
something that will lead to their own undoing. 
We’ve learned a heap from this experience of 
yours. Now, tell me all over again, — every 
smallest detail.” 

So again Elsie went over the whole story, and 
told of every step of the way. 

“ Clever ! clever ! ” was Coe’s grudging tribute 
to the ability of the abductors. 


218 The Disappearance of Kimball Webb 

“You see the first taxicab was a real one. 
They engaged the driver to do just what he did 
do. The second was a fake one, — their own car 
and one of their own men. Then when the time 
came, the car was abandoned, — and so were you. 
They knew you’d get a lift back to the city, — 
and they didn’t care whether you did or not! 
In one way, I can’t blame you, Miss Powell, 
for I see you didn’t dare tell me. Yet, you 
might have known they’d not release their 
prisoner.” 

“ I don’t agree,” cried Elsie. “ How could I 
know that? And if they had given him to me 
the money was well spent.” 

“ That’s so ; it wouldn’t have been surprising 
if they had let him go; they’d doubtless be glad 
to get rid of him. But I think your quick will- 
ingness to give the money make them greedy 
for more, and I think they’ll try the same game 
right over again.” 

“ Oh,” Elsie cried, “ I couldn’t do it again ! ” 

“ No, indeed! And you’re not going to throw 
away another fifty thousand dollars, if I can 
prevent it! Now, let’s consider. What have 
we learned? What sleeping dogs have we 
stirred up? Much depends on the positive fact 
that this note is really from Mr. Webb himself. 
You’re sure? ” 

“ Absolutely,” declared Elsie. “ I know Kim- 
ball’s writing, and I know that’s it. Nobody 


An Easy Mark 


219 


could forge so skilfully, — you can see that your- 
self. It’s clashed off.” 

“ Yes, that’s so. A forgery would show a 
little hesitation or painstaking effort. But I’m 
going to show it to an expert. He can tell if he 
has some of Webb’s other letters.” 

“ Anybody could tell,” insisted Elsie. “ Wait, 
I’ll get some letters.” 

She ran away to her own room and returned 
with a packet of them. 

Comparison soon made it evident that the note 
in question was beyond all doubt the work of 
Webb himself. A thousand little points proved 
it. Coe was satisfied, and went on with his con- 
clusions from it. 

“ You see, it proves a whole lot of things,” he 
cried, jubilantly. “ Perhaps your money, enor- 
mous sum though it was, bought worth-while 
evidence.” 

“ Such as what? ” 

“ Well, to begin with, we know now that Webb 
was really abducted, and is now held against 
his will. This does away with all thought of 
his having decamped on purpose, — also, to my 
mind, precludes the theory of his mother or sister 
being implicated. Miss Webb is a Tartar, — if 
you ask me! but she never managed the affair 
of yesterday ! ” 

“ No, she never did ! Henrietta is not ac- 
quainted with those — ” 


220 The Disappearance of Kimball Webb 

“ Loan Sharks! Right! Kimball Webb was 
carried off by desperate and clever men, — and, 
here ? s a strong point, — he was unconscious when 
removed from his room.” 

“ How do you know? ” 

“ Because in this first letter, it says the means 
used will never be known by any one, — not even 
himself. So, as I imagined, he was taken from 
his room, — from his home, while unconscious, — 
in a drugged sleep probably, and therefore, we 
must assume a secret entrance ! ” 

“ But there isn’t any ! ” 

“ There is ! There’s got to be ! They couldn’t 
take him through the door and fasten it behind 
them! They couldn’t get him out of that six 
inch opening at the top of a window ! There has 
to be a secret way out! And, by George, I’m 
going to find it, if I have to tear the house 
down ! ” 

“ I’d rather you’d find Kim,” said Elsie, sadly. 

“ You poor child ! Of course you would. For- 
give me, I’m afraid I seem to think less of the 
quarry than the chase! But I don’t really. 
We’re going to get Kimball Webb back, — and 
we’re going to do it by means of the information 
you unconsciously achieved through this adven- 
ture of yours ! ” 

“ And you don’t think they mean to give him 
back after I did my part? ” 

“ I do not ! They look on you as an inexhaust- 


221 


An Easy Mark 

ible gold mine. They’ll wait a while and then 
make a stab for another big sum. Less maybe 
than the first, but exorbitant. Apparently 
they’re not afraid of anything or anybody. 
Clever chaps, but sure to come a cropper yet ! ” 

“ How do you know? ” 

“ Oh, they’re too cocksure ; they’re bound to 
overlook or forget some little thing, and now I 
know there is a scent to be followed, I’m all for 
following it. Now I know there’s a sleeping 
dog, I shan’t let him lie! Take that letter! 
The two letters from them! Look at ’em! No 
attempt at disguised writing. Plain, bold pen- 
manship, — not printed nor words cut out from 
a newspaper, nor any of those hackneyed stunts.” 

“ Well?” 

“ Well, that proves they were written by some 
one who never could by the remotest chance be 
suspected. Somebody so outside suspicion that 
they’re willing to send his regular handwriting.” 

“ Proving? ” 

“ Proving a clever, bold master spirit, who 
stops at nothing and who knows just what he 
dare do and what not! I believe he fully in- 
tended to set Mr. Webb free on the receipt of 
the money, — then, when you proved such a 
ninny, — pardon me, it slipped out, — but you 
were ! then, he concluded you were good for one 
more touch, at least.” 

“ Well, if what I learned, — or made it possible 


222 The Disappearance of Kimball Webb 

for you to learn — restores Kimball Webb to me, 
— Fll never begrudge the money.” 

“ That is, if we get him home in time for the 
wedding.” 

u Oh, I don’t care for the fortune — ” 

“ Then, just how are you going to pay your 
indebtedness to the Hebrew gentleman? ” 

Elsie’s face fell. “ I hadn’t thought of that ! ” 
“ It’s a big thing to think of, Miss Powell ! 
You can’t get out of that obligation, you know. 
And while the receipt of your aunt’s money 
would make it easy for you to pay it, yet if you 
are not married by your birthday — ” 

“ And do you think if I had acted differently 
in any way, I could have held those men to their 
agreement ? ” 

“ I can’t say positively, — but I do think so.” 

“ What ought I to have done? ” 

“ Demanded the person of Webb before you 
gave up the money, — or at least, asked for some 
assurance of his return, and asked when and 
where you might expect to see him.” 

“ I was too frightened.” 

“ I know you were, and they knew it, too.” 

“ And anyway, even if they had made me prom- 
ises then, they wouldn’t have kept them.” 

“ Likely not. Now, Miss Powell, here’s a hard 
fact, — if Mr. Webb is not here by your birthday, 
you’ll have to marry somebody, — in order to get 
that money so you can pay off that loan.” 


223 


An Easy Mark 

“What?” Elsie’s face went white, and her 
eyes were filled with horror at the sudden 
realization of the truth of Coe’s statement. 

“ I won’t, — I’ll kill myself first ! ” 

“ Oh, come now, don’t talk about killing. And 
that would be a cowardly thing, for your people 
would be hounded, — whether legally or not.” 

“ Mother and Gerty ! Oh, no ! ” 

“ I don’t say they could be made to pay it, but 
there’d be some mighty unpleasant experiences 
coming to them! No, Miss Powell, don’t kill 
yourself, — surely a marriage with some man 
other than Mr. Webb would be a better fate than 
suicide ! ” 

“ No, not to my way of thinking. But I must 
think of my mother and sister! Oh, Mr. Coe, 
do help me ! I think I shall go distracted ! ” 
“Small wonder! You poor child! I wish, 
now, we had more time. The birthday is draw- 
ing perilously near. Something must be done. 
Of course, you can’t describe either man well 
enough for positive identification? ” 

“No; the taxi driver, the second one was a 
decent looking man, of medium build, with a 
grave, rather stern face. He was dark, I think, 
— with brownish hair. I saw his back mostly, 
and didn’t notice his face at all. I thought of 
him merely as a means to an end, and when the 
red car came along, I thought only of giving up 
the money. And the man in the red car wore a 


224 The Disappearance of Kimball Webb 

mask, — just a small one, but it covered Ms eyes 
and nose and came down partly over Ms mouth. 
But I noticed several gold filled teeth in the lower 
jaw. Unusually bright they were.” 

“ That would be a help, if we could get any 
other hint which way to look. But, as I said, 
the master mind behind all this scheme is so 
diabolically clever, that he has discounted all 
chances of discovery and, I’ve no doubt, feels 
secure from police and detectives. 

“ Now, I’m for spending another night in that 
room of Kimball Webb’s, and I’ll bet there’ll be 
no Poltergeist this time ! ” 

“Why?” 

“Why, don’t you see it! The arch villain, — 
I feel sure there’s one principal and two or more 
subordinates, — the chief devil, we’ll say, has a 
means of access to that room. It was he who 
was responsible for all the Poltergeist per- 
formances, he who pulled bedclothes off Webb, 
and later, off yours truly, — he who made a 
ghost appear, — ” 

“ How?” 

“ Oh, lots of ways for that. I’ll tell you some 
other time. I must skittle, now. Go to sleep 
and dream of Webb’s return. But, — and this is 
very serious, Miss Powell, — if I don’t succeed in 
getting him back, — if the villains are scared off 
or any such matter, you must make up your 
mind to marry somebody else. For I should hate 


225 


An Easy Mark 

to see yon in the clutches of that wretch of a 
Loan Broker! You’ve no idea what it would 
mean ! ” 

Coe went away, and Elsie went straight to her 
room. She denied admittance, when Gerty 
begged for it, and said she wanted to rest. 

But rest, she did not; in fact she was such a 
victim of unrest, worry and anguish, that morn- 
ing found her in a high fever and grave danger 
of nervous collapse. 

The doctor came, a nurse was summoned and 
for a few days brain fever was feared. But El- 
sie’s strong constitution and brave will power 
conquered, and she pulled through without the 
dreaded attack. 

The doctor ordered, however, a change of 
scene, were it ever so small a journey, and after 
some discussion Elsie agreed to go to Atlantic 
City for a few days. 

Coley Coe was the one who finally persuaded 
her to adopt the plan. He promised to keep in 
constant touch with her and tell her any bit of 
information he could gain. He said he would 
come down to see her as often as necessary for 
their mutual conference, and he felt sure that 
she would be better off in every way from her 
family for a time. 

He had slept in Kimball Webb’s room sev- 
eral nights, since, and as he anticipated, nothing 
at all had happened. 


226 The Disappearance of Kimball Webb 

“You see,” lie said, “the rascal thought he 
could make it appear supernatural, now he 
knows I'm on his trail, he has given up that 
idea.” 

“ How does he know it? ” asked Elsie. “ Is he 
omniscient ? ” 

“ Nearly so ! You may depend he knows every 
step that is taken toward his discovery! Why, 
Miss Powell, he's a man in the know, every way. 
He may not be one of Mr. Webb’s own particu- 
lar circle, socially, but he's enough in his set 
or in his life somehow, to be in touch with 
everybody even remotely connected with the 
case.” 

“ Have the police done nothing at all? ” 

“ Yes, they're working at it. But their 
methods are different from mine, and while 
they’re all right, I doubt if they get anywhere. 
Sometimes I doubt if I will, either. Howsum- 
ever, you toddle along to Atlantic City with 
Nursey, and I'll try to corral a nice young man 
for you to marry before the fatal thirtieth gets 
much nearer. You wasted some good time with 
that illness of yours, — though I don't wonder at 
it, I’m sure.” 

“ Why, what could I have done, — if I hadn't 
been ill? ” 

“ Nothing definite, but I feel sure the abduc- 
tors would have written you another of those 
good-looking notes, and if you had gone on 


An Easy Mark 227 

another taxi ride, I should have been off in the 
offing somehow.” 

The nurse, a Miss Loring, was a pleasant, 
sympathetic girl, and as she of course knew all 
about Elsie’s tragedy from the papers, she was 
deeply interested in her young charge. She was 
experienced and capable and Elsie found herself 
really glad to go away with the kind and gentle 
nurse. 

They were pleasantly located in The Turrets, a 
new hotel, and after twenty-four hours of rest 
and sea air Elsie felt wonderfully better. 

“ I’m not really ill, you know,” she said, and 
the nurse agreed. 

“ No, Miss Powell, but it was a real nervous 
breakdown, and another will follow, unless you 
try to keep it off.” 

“ I’ll try,” and Elsie voluntarily became a 1 
biddable and obedient patient. 

It was on a Thursday, — just one week before 
the thirtieth of June that the two went for a 
ride in the rolling chairs. Sometimes they rode 
together, but this day they chanced to take sep- 
arate chairs. 

The man who pushed Elsie’s was a big, husky 
chap, with an engaging smile. Miss Loring’s 
man was a slender youth, but of a wiry strength. 

For a time they rode close together, chatting 
casually, and then as Elsie grew silent, the nurse 
ceased to bother her with talk. 


228 The Disappearance of Kimball Webb 

Thus, it chanced, now and then, one chair or 
the other forged ahead, by reason of the traffic or 
danger of a collision. 

And one time, when Elsie’s chair was pushed 
ahead of Miss Loring’s it did not fall back beside 
the nurse’s chair as promptly as usual. 

Elsie looked around for the nurse, but failed 
to see her. 

“ Where’s my companion? ” she said over her 
shoulder; “ don’t let us get separated.” 

“ No, ma’am,” smiled the big man who pushed 
her, and she settled back into her seat, thinking 
deeply. 

A moment later, she looked around again, and 
still not seeing the nurse told the man to wait 
for her to come up to them. 

“Why, the other lady is ahead, ma’am, I’ll 
catch up to her,” and he moved her chair more 
quickly. 

Elsie looked about with a sudden thrill of 
alarm, and saw no sign of the nurse anywhere. 

“ Here we are, ma’am, she just went in here,” 
the man stopped the chair in front of a tall hotel. 

“Went in here? What do you mean?” 

“ Yes’m, the lady who belongs with you, — the 
nurse, ma’am, she went in here in great haste and 
motioned for you to follow her. Better go in, 
ma’am.” 

“ Bewildered, Elsie allowed herself to be as- 


229 


An Easy Mark 

sisted from the chair and ushered inside, not 
thinking at the moment that it was strange for 
the chair-pusher to be so officious. 

“What in the world did Miss Loring come 
in here for? ” she asked, as they stood a moment 
in the hall. 

“ I don’t know, ma’am, but I just saw her go 
up in this elevator. She beckoned for you to 
follow.” 

Elsie hesitated a moment, but it was a first 
class hotel, not a large building but a tall one, 
and handsomely appointed. 

She got into the elevator, the man follow- 
ing, indeed, urging her in by a guiding hand on 
her elbow. 

“ Tenth,” he said to the elevator girl, and the 
car shot upward. 

It was not until they were walking along the 
corridor on the tenth floor that Elsie felt a thrill 
of fear. What did it mean? Surely Miss 
Loring never came up here, — expecting Elsie to 
follow ! 

“ Here you are,” and as they reached a closed 
door, the man swung it open and led Elsie firmly 
inside. “ Sorry, Miss, but I’m only obeying or- 
ders. Good-bye.” He jerked off his cap, closed 
the door behind him and went away, leaving 
Elsie alone, in a strange room in a strange 
house. 


230 The Disappearance of Kimball Webb 

She flew to the door, but she could not open it. 
She was trapped, — and she had walked into a 
trap, unresistingly, in broad daylight! 

What would Coley Coe say to her now? 

She went to the window and looked out. The 
familiar sight of the ocean and the boardwalk 
cheered her. She didn’t know what she was to 
experience next, but she felt a sense of relief at 
sight of the throngs of people. 

She was alone in the room for what seemed 
hours but was not more than twenty minutes 
when the door was flung open and in rushed, — 
not the man with the gold teeth, whom she had 
rather expected to see, — but Fenn Whiting. 

“ Oh, Elsie,” he cried, wildly, “ am I in time? ” 

“ Time for what?” she asked bewilderedly. 

“ Why, I met Miss Loring and she said she had 
lost you, and I chased madly about asking every- 
body questions, and I finally traced you here! 
Who brought you? What does it mean?” 

“ I know no more than you do, Fenn,” and so 
relieved at sight of a kind and familiar face 
was she, that Elsie burst into tears on his 
shoulder. 

“ There, there, darling,” he soothed her, “ never 
mind, — it’s all right. Stay there, dearest, that’s 
your rightful place. I hope it will always be 
your haven in troublous times. Be quiet, my 
love, don’t try to talk yet, — and when you can, 
then tell me what happened.” 


An Easy Mark 


231 


“ Yes, I can talk ! I’m all right,” and Elsie 
stopped crying ; “ I’m only mad ! Why, Fenn, 
somebody trapped me into this room ! ” 

“ Trapped you! What do you mean?” 

“Just that!” and Elsie told how the chair- 
pusher had led her to the house, and urged her 
up in the elevator and into the room, and then 
had locked her in. 

“Why, the door isn’t locked,” Whiting ex- 
claimed, “ I walked right in ! ” 

“ How did you know I was in here? ” 

“ Asked the elevator girl, — she told me.” 

“ Well, the door was locked on this side, — 
must be a spring catch.” 

“ It must be, then,” — and Whiting went to 
examine it. “ Yes, it is. Thank Heaven I could 
open it from outside. Well, dearest, we’ll go 
home, shall we? ” 

“ Yes, I suppose so. But I want to know 
what it all means.” 

“ Didn’t you know your chair man? ” 

“No; we pick up different ones every time, 
— wherever we happen to be. He wasn’t a 
real one, of course. He must have been 
placed there, so I’d engage him, by those 
villains — ” 

“What villains? What are you talking 
about? ” 

Elsie bit her lip. She had promised Coe to 
reveal no slightest word regarding her experi- 


232 The Disappearance of Kimball Webb 

ences with the kidnappers of Webb, and now she 
had given a hint! 

“ Nothing,” she said, “ nothing , Fenn. Oh, 
I am ill, please take me home ! ” 

“ You’re not ill, Elsie, but you’re terribly 
frightened. Tell me what about and tell me 
who are the villains who are troubling you. Let 
me settle with them! I am your rightful pro- 
tector. You are engaged to me, and in less than 
a week is our wedding day ! Can’t we announce 
it, at once, and let me be known as your proper 
protector? You shall not leave this room until 
you say yes ! ” 


CHAPTER XV 


IN UNIFORM 

“TS that a threat?” Elsie turned on Whiting, 
with sudden rage. 

“ Not unless you choose to take it so. ” But 
the man’s steely grey eyes were commanding 
rather than imploring, and his thin lips were 
set in a straight line that bespoke determination. 
“ Don’t make me threaten you, Elsie, — why 
should it be necessary? I love you and I want 
you, — but more than that I want your promise 
to marry me at once to save yourself from perse- 
cution and trouble. You were trapped here, you 
say, — you just referred to some villains who 
have, I must infer, already annoyed you. Why 
haven’t you told me of it? ” 

“Why should I? I can’t marry 'you, Fenn, 
after all. I know I said I would, — and you 
know what I said I’d do right afterward. But 
I can’t do that. Perhaps I’m too much of a 
coward, to take my own life, — perhaps it would 
be a cowardly thing to do, anyway. But, I can’t 
marry you — ” 

“ You must, Elsie, you promised me — ” 

“ Such promises have been broken before this ! 
A consent to marry is not a marriage contract! 

233 


234 The Disappearance of Kimball Webb 

Sue me for breach of promise, if you choose, — I 
refuse to many you ! ” 

Her voice rose at the last to an almost 
hysterical shriek. She was both nervous and 
frightened. The knowledge that she had been 
abducted, — for that was what it seemed to be, — 
scared her, and though grateful for Whiting’s 
rescue and his presence, yet she felt a strange 
fear of him, too. 

“ Let me go,” she said, at last, starting toward 
the door. 

“ No,” and Fenn strode across the room, locked 
the door and pocketed the key. “ No, you shall 
not go until I have your promise, — and an un- 
breakable one this time. In fact, Elsie, I want 
you to marry me right now and here. I’ll ar- 
range all details, — I have arranged most of 
them. Just consent, dearest, and then you’ll be 
mine to love and care for and to protect from 
those villains you speak of.” 

“ Fenn, are you crazy? ” 

“ No, I’m not, but you’ll be, if you keep up 
this nervous tension you’re living under. Be 
guided by me, Elsie, darling; marry me out of 
hand, and we’ll go away to some beautiful, quiet 
spot, and all care shall be lifted from your dear 
shoulders.” 

Elsie looked at him curiously. 

“ Suppose I agree to marry you the day after 
my birthday,” she said; “ will that do? ” 


In Uniform 


235 


“ Do perfectly, as far as the loss of your for- 
tune is concerned. I’ve told you before I’m no 
fortune hunter. You must believe it by now. 
I’d rather marry you at once, for your sake, and 
for my own. But not for the sake of the inheri- 
tance. So, promise me sacredly to marry me 
the day after your birthday, and I’ll take you 
home now.” 

“ Oh, no, Fenn, don’t you see, if I marry you, 
it must be before the thirtieth, to get the money 
for Mother and Gerty. They’d never forgive me 
otherwise. And, too, why should I wait? I’d 
like the money all right, — if only I didn’t have 
to marry to get it. What an awful will ! And 
yet, it all seemed so lovely when I had Kimball 
with me ! ” 

“ It will seem just as lovely when I’m with 
you. Let me try, dear ; give me a chance to make 
good! I’m not over conceited, but I’m sure I 
can make you happy. If you choose to marry me 
in time to get the money, we can do wonderful 
things ! Take wonderful trips, see beautiful 
places, — but beautiful to me, only because you 
are with me ! ” 

There was a deep thrill in his tones that moved 
Elsie by its genuine passion and devotion. She 
looked into his grey eyes, — their steely glint 
softened now, and read there a great unconquer- 
able love for herself. Should she cast this aside 
for a chance, an uncertainty? She must get the 


236 The Disappearance of Kimball Webb 

money for her people, — she had decided on that, 
— and she felt it her duty to sacrifice herself for 
them. But, when she tried to say yes to 
Whiting’s pleas, the word would not come. 

“ I can’t ! Oh, Fenn, I can’t ! ” she moaned. 
“I love Kimball, — oh, I love him desperately! 
I can never marry any one else, — I can’t — I 
can’t do it ! ” 

“ Hush, Elsie, don’t sob so. Listen, dear; the 
time for that sort of thing is past. There are 
only seven days now to your birthday ; you can’t 
wait till the last minute to decide. And if 
Webb had been coming back he would have been 
here before this. He will never come back, — 
I’m sure of it ! ” 

“You can’t be sure of it, Fenn; but will you 
arrange it this way, — you said you would, once. 
Let the wedding take place the day before my 
birthday, and if Kim comes home, let him be the 
bridegroom, and if not, I’ll marry you.” 

“No! I’ll not do that! You’ve played fast 
and loose with me long enough! I’ve stood for 
it because I love you so, and I want you so. But 
I won’t be that sort of a cat’s-paw ! You’ll say 
right now you’ll marry me, or I’ll drop out of 
it all, and you can marry anybody you choose 
to get your precious legacy ! ” 

Whiting’s face was distorted by passion and 
by rage at the idea of being baffled at the last. 
“ I do not think for a minute that Webb would 


In Uniform 


237 


show up, but if he did, I’d not stand having my 
bride snatched from me at the very altar! No! ” 
“ Then, you may drop out ! ” Elsie’s deter- 
mination was as great as his own. “ I refuse 
to promise. I’d rather marry Joe Allison, at 
the last minute, and so keep a chance for Kim y 
than to promise you,, and have no chance at all ! ” 
“Allison! You would, would you? We’ll 
see about that ! ” 

Whiting quite lost control of himself and flew 
into a veritable frenzy. “ You’ll marry me now, 
and here, — get that?” 

Elsie was horror-stricken. Fenn’s teeth were 
set together and his expression was that of a 
hungry, wild animal. She wasn’t afraid that he 
could force her to marry him, but she was afraid 
of what he might say or do if he were further 
defied. 

“ Fenn,” she said, gently, “ Fenn, dear — ” 
“Don’t ‘Fenn, dear’ me unless you mean it T 
Don’t think you can placate me by soft words 
that mean nothing ! Will you marry me, now ? ” 
“ I will not,” Elsie’s hauteur was the last 
straw. 

“ Then, you’ll stay here until you will ! ” 
Whiting flung himself into a chair, and looked 
at her as if he held the whip-hand. 

“What do you mean?” Elsie said, icily. 

“ These are my rooms. You are locked in 
here with me, alone. How long must you stay 


238 The Disappearance of Kimball Webb 

here before you decide it’s wiser to be my wife 
than — ” 

The look the girl gave him made him quail. 

“ Elsie,” he said, more gently. 

“ Hush ! Don’t dare to speak to me again. 
Let me out ! ” 

She flew to the door, but it was locked, the key 
in Whiting’s pocket, or the spring catch holding 
it, she didn’t know which. She pounded on the 
door, with her soft hands, but made little com- 
motion that way. 

“ Useless, my dear,” Whiting said, calmly. 
“ These rooms are on a wing containing but few 
guests. Nobody will hear you. Pound away, 
if you like.” 

This wasn’t true ; as a matter of fact, Whiting 
was very much afraid somebody would hear her, 
but he deemed this the best way to stop her, — 
and it was. 

Elsie believed him and quit pounding. Nor 
did she scream. An idea had come to her. 
Whiting had said rooms. Therefore there was 
more to the suite than the one they were in. 
Covertly she glanced at the doors, and decided 
that while one rather narrow one was doubtless 
a closet, the wide one, the other side of the room, 
probably opened into an adjoining room, which 
was likely to give on the hall. 

At any rate, it was worth trying. 

Cleverly, she seemed not to be noticing these 


In Uniform 


239 


details, but sat, her handkerchief to her eyes, 
apparently subdued and dismayed. And, in 
fact she was both, but not to the point of sur- 
render, as she appeared to Whiting’s anxious 
watchfulness. 

Cautiously looking about, with seemingly a 
vacant stare, she saw many little personal be- 
longings, that convinced her the room was 
Whiting’s sitting room. Doubtless the next 
was his bedroom. All the same, she determined 
to dash through it in an attempt at freedom. 
If she were quick, and the other hall door not 
locked, she could get to the hall, — while if she 
w^ere trapped in the other room, her plight would 
be no worse than it was at present. 

She rose and walked disconsolately about, — 
looked from the windows, stared, unseeing, at a 
picture on the wall, — and generally appeared to 
be aimlessly wandering, while she thought mat- 
ters over. 

Whiting watched her, but so cannily did Elsie 
mislead his thoughts, that he didn’t notice she 
drew nearer and nearer the bedroom door. 

At last, she was almost against it, her eyes 
fastened on a small clock which stood on a table 
at the opposite side of the room. 

“ What time is it? ” she said, dully, as if her 
decision depended on the flight of the hours. 

The ruse succeeded. He followed the direc- 
tion ol her straining eyes, and looked at the 


240 The Disappearance of Kimball Webb 

little clock instead of taking out his own watch. 

Like a flash, Elsie tore open the door, found 
that it opened into a bedroom, with a hall door, 
and crossing the room in the fewest possible 
steps, wrenched open the hall door. It was not 
locked, and she flew through it and down the 
corridor toward the elevators, of which there 
were two side by side. 

Elsie pushed the bell so violently, that the car 
came up immediately and she sprang into it, just 
as Whiting came racing down the hall after her. 

He rang, a long steady ring, and though Elsie’s 
prayers persuaded the girl in the car with her 
not to go up again, the other car shot past them 
flying upward. 

And now Elsie achieved a master-stroke. 
Thinking swiftly, she knew Whiting would make 
the other car drop without a stop, and would 
await her on the ground floor. 

Determined to outwit him, she ordered the 
girl to stop between floors and change gowns with 
her. 

Willing enough, when Elsie offered her all the 
money in her bag, and also told her she would 
be aiding a crime if she refused, the little elevator 
girl slipped out of her uniform, Elsie dropped off 
her own gown and in two minutes they were 
transformed, even the cap of the girl in place of 
Elsie’s pretty hat, and the hat on the other’s 
head. 


In Uniform 


241 


A little bewildered the girl then ran her car 
on down, without stop. 

At the ground floor, acting at Elsie’s orders, 
the other girl stepped from the car in a furtive, 
hunted manner, and ran swiftly down a long 
cross hall, — Whiting, full tilt after her. 

Elsie, meanwhile, stepped briskly out the front 
door, sprang into a taxicab and was whirled 
away. 

Elsie’s spirits rose. She had outwitted Fenn 
Whiting, and she had escaped from a situation 
more dangerous than that of the deserted taxi- 
cab of a few days before. 

She went straight back to the hotel where she 
and the nurse had been staying. Here the desk 
clerk told her that the nurse had packed up 
everything and had returned to New York. 

Elsie was amazed. She trusted the nurse ab- 
solutely, but she now began to fear her sincerity. 
To the poor girl it seemed as if there were nobody 
in whom she could place confidence. And there 
was the ever dreadful question of the fortune. 
Had it not been for her insistent family, she 
would have given up all thought of the money 
and would have run away to hide by herself until 
her birthday had passed. 

But, she argued, this was not the way to feel. 
For she must be at home, in case Kimball should 
somehow miraculously appear. 

Unable to fathom the meaning of the nurse’s 


242 The Disappearance of Kimball Webb 

departure, though since she had taken all their 
luggage, Elsie couldn’t think she was honest, she 
concluded to go right back to New York herself. 

She couldn’t hope to escape Fenn Whiting’s 
presence much longer, for having learned the 
trick played on him, he would of course come 
at once to The Turrets. 

Moreover, Elsie was attracting curious looks, 
and even disapproving ones by reason of her 
standing about in the hall, dressed in the uniform 
of an elevator girl! She wondered what the 
poor girl was doing, who now wore her clothes. 
Perhaps she would lose her position ! Elsie 
determined to look after her as soon as she could 
secure and count on her own safety. 

And now a new dilemma presented itself. She 
had no money! 

All she had carried with her, in her handbag, 
she had given to the girl in the elevator, thinking 
she would go back to the hotel where she had 
her check book. 

But that was gone with her trunks. Even the 
unpaid cabman was already clamouring for his 
fare! 

"“Why did Miss Loring say she left?” she 
asked the clerk. 

“ She said you had sent her word you had 
already gone home, and she was to follow at 
once,” he returned, glancing at her severely. 


In Uniform 


243 


“ She packed quickly and caught the first train 
she could get.” 

“ She paid the bill? ” 

“ Yes, in full to the time of her leaving.” 

“ I will ask you then, to pay this cabman, and 
let me have money enough to get to New York. 
I will send you a check from there.” 

But the desk clerk didn’t seem to care for this 
plan at all. He paid the cabman, who was be- 
coming a nuisance, but he declined to advance 
money to such an erratic person as the lady 
before him seemed to be. 

She had made no explanation of her strange 
garb, and his manner had so roused her indig- 
nation that she kept her own counsel. 

But she was at her wits’ end. It was after 
four in the afternoon and a hotel who wouldn’t 
lend a few dollars, would doubtless object to 
her re-registering there, with no money, and in 
most eccentric costume. 

As she thought it over a man approached and 
asked if he might be of assistance. 

It was the man of the gold-filled teeth ! 

Any fear of him she might have felt vanished 
in a strange sense of seeing an old friend! For 
so helpless and friendless was the poor child 
that even this man, presumably one of the “ vil- 
lains,” seemed a godsend ! 

And he was polite and deferential. 


244 The Disappearance of Kimball Webb 

“ Well,” she said, her poise returning, “ all 
things considered, I think I am privileged to ask 
you for the loan of a few dollars.” 

“ I’ll do better than that,” he said, with a really 
cordial smile, “ 111 escort you back to New York. 
Pm going myself, on the four-forty-five. And 
you need have no fear,” he said, coming nearer. 
“ Fve no reason to wish you any harm. Ill de- 
liver you safe and sound at your own home on 
Park Avenue.” 

There was something about him that inspired 
confidence. And Elsie was tired, faint and ex- 
hausted. She thought this plan offered her, 
however it might turn out, a lesser evil than to 
stay alone at The Turrets, even if this new friend 
gave her money, for there she was still in the 
vicinity of Fenn Whiting. Indeed, he was liable 
to appear at any minute. 

She made up her mind, quickly. 

u 111 go with you,” she said. “ Will you lend 
me enough money to buy some sort of a large 
cloak or cape, and a hat? ” 

“ Yes,” he said, and he looked at her uniform 
with the queerest glance. 

But it was not to be wondered at, doubtless he 
was striving to keep from bursting into laughter. 
The cocky little cap, above Elsie’s lovely troubled 
face was a picture ! 

So, the strangely assorted pair took a cab, 
stopped at a goods emporium and Elsie procured 


In Uniform 


245 


a decent hat and a large full cape, and then they 
reached the station just in time to take the de- 
sired train. 

In the car he left her to herself, and went away 
to the smoker. 

He was most deferential, most polite. 

“ And why shouldn’t he he? ” Elsie asked her- 
self. “ I’ve paid him, — or his gang fifty thou- 
sand dollars, — surely they owe me something ! 
I’ve a mind to ask him something about Kim, — 
he seems so nice.” 

But thoughts of Coley Coe kept her silent on 
any save the most casual subjects. 

She felt, during the ride to New York, as if she 
ought to plan some way of trailing the gold- 
toothed man after he left her. But how could 
she do it? Vague thoughts of telegraphing from 
the moving train, — of having policemen meet her 
at the station, — all sorts of plans went through 
her mind, but none were practicable. 

So she determined to talk more with the man 
and find out anything she might, that way, and 
then do the best she could to get Coe quickly, as 
soon as she was safely at home. 

For she dreaded any further abduction or 
trapping, — and she longed only to be at home 
once more and safe from impending danger. 

As they neared the big station the gold-tooth 
man returned. 

“ Sure,” he replied to her request, “ I’ll tell you 


246 The Disappearance of Kimball Webb 

my name. It’s Pike. Richard Pike. And now, 
miss, you’re bound for home? ” 

“ Yes, as soon as I can get there. Please 
leave me at the platform, I can get a taxi 
myself.” 

“Desert you at the last post? No indeed, 
ma’am. Don’t be afraid, — I’m not going to 
carry you off ! ” He laughed good-naturedly, 
and again Elsie’s fears were drowned in a sense 
of his honest intention to treat her with courtesy. 

So they walked to the taxicab, and after she 
got into one he followed. 

So amazed was she at this, that she made 
a protest. 

“ Oh, it’s right on my way,” he said, “ so why 
pay two fares? ” 

The ride was not long, but when the cab 
stopped, it was not at Elsie’s home. 

It was at a house, a fine-looking brownstone 
house, that had the appearance of being closed 
for the summer. The windows were boarded up, 
the front door likewise, and all was silent and 
still. 

“Where’s this?” Elsie asked, refusing to get 
out. 

“ Hush ! ” and Pike put his finger to his lip. 
“ The taxi driver is a bad one ! Get out, miss, 
quick ! ” 

Scared at his serious tone, and secret man- 
ner, Elsie got out, through sheer force of the 


In Uniform 


247 


other’s will, and in a moment the fare was paid 
and the cab had disappeared down the street. 

“ Now, miss,” and the hitherto kind voice had 
a hard note in it, “ you’ll stop in ’here for a 
minute on your way home. Don’t refuse, now, 
it wouldn’t be healthy ! ” 

The cold little ring of an automatic pressed 
against Elsie’s temple, and with a glance at 
Pike’s face, she knew in an instant she was 
trapped again ! 

Almost without volition, for this new terror 
seemed to deprive her of her senses, Elsie 
stumbled along, through the gate the man 
opened, and which led to the area entrance. 

Through the basement door, they entered the 
house, and in the doorway, Elsie was met by a 
woman, a decent, middle-aged body, who took 
the fainting girl to her breast. 

“ There now,” she said, in the kindest tones, 
“ there now, miss, brace up. It’s faint you are, 
dearie. Sit there, now, and let me fix you up.” 

She bustled about and gave Elsie a glass of 
warm milk, then taking off her shoes and her 
wraps, she laid her down on a wide couch in 
the front one of the basement rooms. 

“ Sakes alive ! what’s she got on a uniform 
for? ” 

“ I don’t know,” Pike returned, but he winked 
at the woman to make her refrain from further 
queries. 


248 The Disappearance of Kimball Webb 

Elsie was exhausted, but not to the point of 
going to sleep. 

After a second glass of milk and some bread 
and fruit, she was quite herself again, and, 
buoyed up by excitement and anger was ready for 
combat. 

“What does it all mean?” she asked the 
woman, thinking it wiser not to show her indig- 
nation at first. 

“ Don’t ask me, miss, / don’t know,” the 
woman returned. 

“ That’s right, miss,” Pike broke in ; “ my wife 
don’t know anything about it all, — and neither 
do I. We’re paid tools, — that’s all we are. 
Now, there’s the matter in a nutshell. We’re 
paid to look after you good and proper. We’ll 
do it, too, and if you let us, we’ll be kind and 
gentle with you. But if you force us to it, we 
may have to use stronger means. I’d be sorry 
to lay a hand on you, miss, and I hope to good- 
ness you won’t make it necessary, — but I’ll say 
straight out, you’ve got to obey our orders.” 

“ I’ve no objection, so long as you’re merely 
taking care of me, as you say,” Elsie returned, 
coolly. She felt a conviction that her best plan 
with these people was to placate them all in all 
possible ways. 

It could do no good to combat them, and 
might do great harm. 


In Uniform 


249 


“ Who pays you? ” she asked, so casually, she 
hoped for an answer. 

“ We’re forbidden to tell,” Pike said, simply. 
“ And, you must see, miss, questions will not get 
you anywhere, for we’re paid to keep our mouths 
shut, so it stands to reason we’re going to do it.” 

“ Of course,” Elsie agreed. “ But suppose I 
pay you better, far better than your present pay- 
master? ” 

The woman looked up quickly, her small black 
eyes shining with cupidity, but Pike said in a 
voice that rang with truth : 

“ I wouldn’t dare , miss. I wouldn’t dare even 
listen to you*! ” 

“ Oh,” she said, “ you’re afraid of him — ” and 
she whispered, — “ the master mind ! ” 

“You said it!” Pike exclaimed. “ Nobody 
dares stand up against him ! ” 

And at that moment a shout rang through the 
house. The two Pikes turned white and fairly 
trembled with terror, but Elsie cried out, 

“ That’s the voice of Kimball Webb! ” 


CHAPTER XVI 


A SAFE MAN 

T HERE was consternation in the Powell 
household when Miss Loring arrived with- 
out Elsie. 

“ Where is she? ” cried Gerty. 

“Here, isn’t she?” returned the bewildered 
nurse. 

“ No, of course not! Why did you think so?,” 
And then Nurse Loring told how she had re- 
ceived a message from Elsie saying she had been 
obliged to return to New York suddenly, that 
she had gone with some friends, and for Miss 
Loring to follow as soon as she could pack off. 

“ Did she write you a note? ” asked Mrs. 
Powell. 

“No; the word was brought by a man.” 

“ What sort of a man? ” 

“ A decent appearing person, who said he was 
the chauffeur of Miss Powell’s friends with 
whom she had gone.” 

“ What did he look like? ” 

“ Ordinary looking, like a servant, but respect- 
ful and well-mannered, and he had a great many 
gold filled teeth. Do you know him? ” 

“No; and I think there’s something wrong. 
250 


A Safe Man 


251 


Elsie never would have done such a thing. She 
hasn’t any friends down there with their car, — 
that I know of. Has she, mother? ” 

“ No,” Mrs. Powell agreed. “ There is some- 
thing wrong.” She clasped her hands nervously. 
“ Do send for Mr. Coe, Gerty.” 

Coley Coe came on the jump, and listened to 
the tale with a grave face. 

“ I should say there was ! ” he exclaimed, 
“ something very wrong ! That girl has been 
kidnapped and the villains mean to keep her till 
after her birthday ! I’ve been fearing some such 
performance, but I thought she was safe with the 
nurse.” 

Miss Loring spoke quickly : “ Oh, I was so 

careful of her ! I never let her out of my sight 
for a moment, but if I had known there was any 
danger of this sort, I should have been doubly 
careful! Why didn’t you tell me? ” 

“ My own suspicions were not definite enough,” 
said Coe. “ Nobody blames you, Miss Loring, 
you could not help it. In the crowd, the trick 
was easily turned. Now, Mrs. Powell, don’t cry 
so; you need fear no harm for your daughter, 
no bodily harm, I mean. She will likely be 
treated with greatest consideration and kindness, 
— but — ” 

“ But I don’t understand,” Gerty looked doubt- 
ful, — “why should any one want to kidnap 
Elsie? ” 


252 The Disappearance of Kimball Webb 

“ IPs a moil, Mrs. Seaman,” Coe said, shaking 
his long thatch out of his eyes. “ I’m not yet dis- 
couraged, but I’m getting to see that we’re up 
against not only a very clever villain but an 
utterly unscrupulous one.” 

“ Aren’t all villains that? ” 

“ Not entirely. Some draw the line at certain 
crimes. But this master-fiend, for that’s what 
he is — ” 

“ Do you know him? ” Gerty asked eagerly. 

“ No, I don’t! I know so much about him, — 
I’ve so many sidelights on him, so much evidence 
against him, and yet I lack the one connecting 
link that would give me his identity. I have my 
suspicions — but, oh, there were some things I 
wanted to ask Miss Powell ! ” 

“ Perhaps I can tell you, she talked over every- 
thing with me.” 

“ No; I only wanted her to tell me over again 
the little things she picked up that first morning 
at the Webbs. You know the white marks on 
the floor? Well, they’re explained. Miss Webb 
was in the room that evening, but it was before 
her brother came in, and she, foolishly enough! 
tried to conceal the fact, lest she be suspected 
of having Kimball Webb in hiding! ” 

“ She was suspected.” 

“ Yes, but she isn’t now. At least, not by me. 
That speech, ‘if it should be!’ referred to 
spooks; and I had her trailed, you know, and 


A Safe Man 


253 


though she was reported as going on mysterious 
secret errands, they were, — what do you sup- 
pose? ” 

“'Oh, what?” 

“ Trips to a Beauty Doctor ! ” 

“ Poor Henrietta ! It’s pathetic, but I can’t 
help laughing. And Mrs. Webb, she went on 
secret errands, too, didn’t she? ” 

“Yes; and hers were to seances with people 
that she didn’t want to acknowledge as her 
friends ! Common people, — as mediums usually 
are, and some cronies that Mrs. Webb only cul- 
tivated in the pursuit of her psychic researches ! 
No, there’s no reason to suspect that the mother 
or sister know w T here Webb is. Nor, do I see 
any chance of finding his hiding place before the 
thirtieth. After that, I’m very sure he will be 
freed.” 

“ But now Elsie’s gone, too ! ” 

“ Yes, and I’ve no doubt, taken away by the- 
same people.” 

A few questions asked of the nurse gave Coe 
no information concerning the man with the 
gold teeth. 

“ Oho ! ” he cried ; “ it is the same gang, then ! 
We must get them! Do describe him further, 
Miss Loring ! ” 

But her detailed description was only such as 
called up a picture of an average looking man, 
large, strong, with dark hair and eyes, healthy 


254 The Disappearance of Kimball Webb 

colour, and with no striking characteristic but 
the unusual number of gold filled teeth in the 
front part of his lower jaw. 

“ Enough to identify him,” said Coe, “ but not 
enough to find him! We could scour the den- 
tists’ records, but we’d have to visit thousands, 
and then, maybe, fail because the work was done 
in another city! If we only had one more line 
on him.” 

“ Maybe he’s the Sherman’s man,” mused 
Gerty. 

“ What ! What’s that? ” said Coe, quickly. 

“ Why, Elsie picked up a paper in Kim’s 
room, and it was one of those little toothpick 
wrappers, tissue, you know, and it was stamped 
‘ Sherman’s.’ ” 

“ Yes, the big restaurant.” 

“ Yes; now Kimball Webb never went to Sher- 
man’s in his life! I know he didn’t, and Elsie 
says she knows he didn’t. He isn’t that sort of 
a man.” 

“ Why, Sherman’s is all right.” 

“ Yes, for the class of people that like it. But 
Kim is fastidious and Elsie says she knows of 
his prejudice against Sherman’s. Of course 
she’s been out with him so much she knows his 
tastes.” 

“ And this paper was in Webb’s room ! 
When? ” 

“ Elsie found it the day after or a few days 


A Safe Man 


255 


after his disappearance. She threw it away — ” 
“ That doesn’t matter, the* fact of its being 
there is the important thing! You see, the man 
who got in the room may have dropped it — ” 

“ How could any man get in the room ! You’re 
crazy ! ” 

“ ’Deed I’m not ! Some man did get in that 
room, and carry off Kimball Webb while Webb 
was unconscious! Now, you put that away in 
your mind, and keep it there, for it’s true ! ” 

“ How did he get in? ” 

“ Mrs. Seaman, if any one ever asks me that 
question again, I’m going to run away ! I don’t 
know how he got in, — but, he did get in, — and, 
if this interests you, I’m going to find out how 
he got in ! But even more than that, I want to 
find the man! That’s the objective point. To 
find how he got in, would be fearfully interesting 
and would gratify my overweening curiosity, — 
I think overweening is the word for it! Any- 
how, it’s the biggest order of curiosity I’ve ever 
experienced in my career ! But, overweeninger 
yet, is my desire to get the man ! It’s an obses- 
sion with me, — a craze ! My fingers itch for 
him, — and I feel he’s so near — and yet so far ! 
But this little old toothpick paper may be a clue ! 
You know what flimsy little bits they are, how 
they cling in a pocket and are easily flirted out 
with a handkerchief or such matter ! ” 

“ Wouldn’t it be a good deal of a coincidence 


256 The Disappearance of Kimball Webb 

if your man, a frequenter of Sherman’s, left the 
paper, — as one might a visiting card? ” 

“ Don’t be sarcastic, Mrs. Seaman ! ” Coe 
smiled good-naturedly. “ And the coincidence 
wouldn’t be so extraordinarily strange! They 
say, a man can’t enter and leave a room, without 
making half a dozen at least ineffaceable marks 
of his presence there. Now, the only reason I 
doubted the entrance of my man, as you call him, 
was the fact that I hadn’t been able to find any 
trace, — not even the slightest, of his visit there. 
That made me think Webb might have been lured 
out, — stop ! don’t you dare ask me how he got 
out We know he did get out, — and as I told 
you I’m going to find out how. Well, this little 
paper changes the whole map of my cogitations. 
Now, do you know of anybody who does go to 
Sherman’s? ” 

“ I do not. My friends don’t care for the 
place.” 

“ Probably not; but I’ll bet it’s the great little 
old rendezvous of Friend Gold-teeth, and his 
boss.” 

“ Oh, he isn’t the principal, then? ” 

“ Surely not ! The man higher up is a big- 
brained chap, and working for big stakes ! 
Sherman’s! Ho, ho! Pardon my unholy glee, 
but I’m ’way up over this thing ! And now I’ll 
skip. Look for me when you see me ! ” 


A Safe Man 


257 


Ooe went away and went straight to Wallace 
Courtney’s. 

He began by saying frankly, “ Do yon want to 
help me to find Kimball Webb, or don’t you?” 

“ I do,” returned Courtney, “ I’m not a 
heathen ! I’m working on my hay while the sun 
shined, but I’d do anything in my power to find 
Webb even if it meant the failure of my master- 
piece. You know, I think he had a spell of di- 
vine afflatus and went away to finish his own 
play by himself.” 

“ Leaving a bride, practically at the altar ! ” 

“ Oh, I think Elsie’s in the secret. She knows 
where he is! I shouldn’t wonder if they were 
married before he went, — that would make her 
fortune all right.” 

“ Well, what do you think of this? Elsie’s 
kidnapped too, now ! ” 

“ That carries out my theory. She’s gone to 
him.” 

“ Oh, you’re impossible! Well, tell me this, 
and I’ll scat. Do you know anybody who fre- 
quents Sherman’s? Or who goes there occa- 
sionally? ” 

“ I should hope not! Why? ” 

“ Oh, don’t be so supercilious. Sherman’s is 
decent if it is popular.” 

“ I know it. I’ve been there. It’s just a big, 
gay dance hall. No, I don’t number any of its 


258 The Disappearance of Kimball Webb 

regular patrons among my friends. Kimball 
Webb was not one, if that’s what you want to 
know.” 

“ That isn’t what I want to know. Don’t any 
of your crowd go there at times, — anybody who 
was at Webb’s dinner? ” 

“ Why, Coe, I’d tell you if I could. I suppose 
every chap at that dinner has been inside of 
Sherman’s, but I doubt if many of them have 
been more than once or twice as a mere matter 
of curiosity. If that’s all you’re asking me, 
clear out, I’m busy.” 

Coe was about to clear out, when Lulie Lloyd 
stopped him. 

“ I know somebody who goes to Sherman’s a 
lot,” she said; “ he sometimes takes me there.” 

“ Thank you, Miss Lloyd,” Coe said, politely, 
“ but I mean some one of Mr. Webb’s friends.” 

“ So do I,” said the girl, her colour rising and 
her expression a little defiant. 

“ Oh,” and Coley Coe began to see things, 
as in a glass darkly. “ Some one who was at Mr. 
Webb’s dinner? ” 

“ Yes,” she spoke almost sullenly. 

“ May I ask his name? ” 

“ I’ll tell you, but I don’t want Mr. Courtney 
to hear.” 

“ I don’t want to,” the busy playwright re- 
turned, and Lulie Lloyd leaned over and whis- 
pered a name into the ear of Coleman Coe. 


A Safe Man 


259 


He nodded his head, as one who was not over- 
whelmingly surprised, and continued in a low 
tone, “ And do you know a man wfth ever so 
many gold filled teeth in his lower jaw? ” 

u Do I? ” she cried. “ Why, he’s that man’s 
valet ! ” 

“ And a friend of yours? ” 

“ He was ! He isn’t now ! ” 

“ Ah, — he went back on you?” 

“ He did all of that, — and then some ! ” 

And then Lulie Lloyd looked frightened, 
looked as if she regretted deeply what she had 
involuntarily blurted out, and she returned to 
her typewriter and began madly pounding the 
keys. 

But Coe had learned enough. 

He left quickly, and hopping on a street car, 
he arrived at the house where lived the man 
whose name Lulie had whispered to him. The 
man whose valet had the auriferous teeth. 

The man he asked for was out, and though not 
an easy matter, Coe succeeded by dint of threats 
and bribes to gain admission to the room where, 
he said, he would await his host’s return. 

Left alone Coleman Coe proceeded to ransack 
the desk, which stood, carelessly open. 

He ran rapidly through a sheaf of letters and 
bills, now and then shaking his feathery forelock 
wildly, in mad bursts of satisfaction. 

The bills, paid and unpaid, were illuminating. 


260 The Disappearance of Kimball Webb 

The letters even more so, and Coe grew more 
and more beaming of face as he proceeded. 

He kept a wary eye on the door, and at last 
finding an old letter that specially interested 
him, he read it three times, though this was the 
quickly mastered gist of it : 

“ I think Simeon Breese will be a safe man for 
you.” 

The address of the said Simeon followed, and 
this short bit of information seemed to afford 
Coley the deepest pleasure. 

The underscoring of the word safe, particu- 
larly entertained him, and he laughed as at a 
great joke. 

“ I knew it!” he cried, though silently. “I 
knew it ! ” . 

Then, replacing such papers as he had visibly 
disarranged, Coe sauntered forth and left the 
house. 

“ Tell him I couldn’t wait any longer,” he said, 
casually to the door man and went his way. 

His way took him to the establishment of 
Simeon Breese, Safe Maker. 

“ You make safes? ” was Coe’s totally un- 
necessary query. 

“ Yes, sir,” admitted Breese, " what can I do 
for you? ” 

“ I don’t exactly want a safe,” Coe said, with 
what was meant to be an ingratiating wink. “ I, 


A Safe Man 


261 


— that is,” he looked embarrassed, “ I want a 
sort of a — well, a very confidential matter.” 

“ I don’t understand, sir.” 

There was no invitation to proceed, but Coe 
went on : “ I want a secret entrance built — ” 

“ Whatever made you come to me on such an 
errand, then? My business is building safes, — 
not building means to rob them.” 

“ Nonsense, that’s not the idea. I merely 
want a private passage from one room to another 
in my house, — ” 

“ You’re way off, sir. You’ve come to the 
wrong place, entirely. Good morning, sir.” 

“ But, — stay, — wait a minute. I’m recom- 
mended here by — ” And Coe whispered in the 
ear of Breese the same name Lulie Lloyd had 
whispered to him. 

Breese looked utterly blank. 

“ Don’t know your friend, sir; never heard of 
him. Good morning! ” 

This last dismissal was accompanied by a 
glance that meant a very definite invitation to 
leave, and as there seemed small use in staying 
Coe left. But he was disappointed. He had 
hoped to get a line on the secret entrance which 
he knew gave into Kimball Webb’s room. 

One forlorn hope came into his breast. He 
would try to get hold of the valet, the gold- 
toothed valet, who had played fast and loose with 


262 The Disappearance of Kimball Webb 

Lulie Lloyd. This showed him to be a man of 
not unimpeachable morals, and he might be 
useful. 

He went boldly back to the house he had so 
recently left, and inquired if his friend had yet 
returned. 

“ No, sir,” the imperturbable doorman in- 
formed him. 

“ Then is his man in, — his valet? ” 

“ Bass? That he ain’t. He’s left.” 

“ He has? How long ago? ” 

“ Oh, a matter of a couple of months or more 
now.” 

Ah! Not a great discrepancy between that 
and the date of Kimball Webb’s disappearance! 

“ Funny looking man, Bass,” Coe said, cas- 
ually. 

“ All right, I should say.” 

“ Queer teeth, at least.” 

“ Yes,” the other admitted. “ I shouldn’t care 
to carry round such an El Dorado, but Bass is 
rather proud of it.” 

“ Well, we’re all more or less proud of some- 
thing. You don’t know where Bass hangs out 
now? ” 

“ I don’t.” 

Coe sighed and turned away. 

He had so little to work on. That ridiculous 
toothpick paper, — Webb might easily have 
dropped that himself. Many a man would go to 


A Safe Man 


263 


Sherman’s without the knowledge of his sweet- 
heart, and think it no crime. 

And the safe builder seemed to dwindle to even 
greater insignificance. For if he hadn’t built 
the secret entrance which had to be in existence, 
who had, and how was Coe to find him. 

There was only one answer to it all. Coleman 
Coe was up against the necessity, — the actual 
bare necessity of finding that entrance for him- 
self. No matter whether he could do it, or not, 
it had to be done, and he had to do it. 

As he had previously argued, the finding of the 
secret didn’t prove the perpetrator of it, nor 
did it produce Kimball Webb, — but these things 
might result from the discovery of how he 
was taken away, and anyway, there was no other 
way to find out. 

The master mind of the villain who took him 
was so clever, so diabolically canny, there was 
nothing to work on or to work with. 

And, now, Elsie was gone, — there was added 
necessity for hasty action and result. 

The motive, Coe had long ago decided, was the 
fortune. Just how that affected the case he 
wasn’t sure, but he felt an unshakable conviction 
that had it not been for the freak will left by 
Miss Elizabeth Powell there would have been no 
disappearance of either the bridegroom or the 
bride. 

This naturally turned his mind to J oe Allison. 


264 The Disappearance of Kimball Webb 

But he had long ago ceased to suspect Joe. He 
had, at first, but now he knew the chap, and it 
was impossible to connect him with such a crime 
as abduction to gain a fortune. Allison was 
money-mad, that Coe admitted, — but, well, he 
wouldn’t put it on Joe till he had to. 

He decided he’d go to the room of Kimball 
Webb and once again make those hopeless rounds 
of walls, ceiling and floor; doors and windows; 
chimney and bathroom window, which were all 
the points to be examined. 

He asked Miss Webb a few preliminary ques- 
tions. How long had they lived in the house, 
and such things as that. 

This led nowhere. How could it possibly help 
to know they had lived there six years ; to know 
where they had lived in Boston; to know when 
Kimball first met Elsie Powell ; to learn why the 
Webbs didn’t fully approve of the match; all 
these things were as chaff which didn’t even show 
which way the wind blew. 

And Miss Webb’s attitude had greatly changed 
since the last time he talked with her. 

She had now begun to despair of ever seeing 
her brother again. 

With a womanly injustice she was inclined to 
blame Elsie for the whole trouble, but when Coe 
told her that Elsie, too, was mysteriously miss- 
ing, she saw the thing as he did, that a gang or 


A Safe Man 


265 


at least a pair of able and ingenious villains 
were at work. 

Coe was tempted to tell her of the valet, Bass, 
and his master, but concluded to wait a little 
longer. 

He asked for a talk with the two men serv- 
ants, who had broken into KimbalPs room that 
morning, and this being willingly granted, he 
asked them again of any point or hint they might 
remember that hadn’t yet been brought. 

“ No, sir,” said Hollis thoughtfully, “ I’ve had 
all sorts of notions, but they’ve all been wrong, 
and sometimes I’m ready to agree with Mrs. 
Webb herself that it’s the spirits as done it.” 

“ Kubbish ! ” Coe observed, and Hollis really 
agreed, though he had no wiser suggestion to 
make. 

“ How long have you been here? ” Coe asked, 
idly. 

“ Two years, sir.” 

“And have you seen or heard anything mys- 
terious? ” 

“No; not myself, sir. But I’ve heard the 
other servants’ stories.” 

“ So have I,” groaned Coe, wearily. “ I’ve 
heard the tales of moans and groans that grew 
weirder each time, — the tales did, I mean. But 
I’ve heard nothing definite. Have you, Oscar? ” 

“ No, sir,” said the chauffeur, a taciturn chap. 


266 The Disappearance of Kimball Webb 

“ Nor I’ve never seen anything myself, nor heard 
anything. But, Mr. Ooe, everybody laughs at 
this, so I haven’t harped on it. You know I did 
smell bananas as I opened that door, that morn- 
ing, and I’d swear to that on a stack of Bibles ! ” 

“ Bananas ! ” 

“ Yes, sir. And Mr. Kimball Webb didn’t 
care for bananas. I mean he wouldn’t think of 
having them in his bedroom to eat! He never 
did things like that. Now, doesn’t that smell 
mean something? ” 

“ It’s queer, but I can’t see any indicative evi- 
dence in it.” 

“ No, sir, I s’pose not. But I’d like to know 
what made it. Maybe ghosts eat bananas.” 


CHAPTER XVII 


GILDED ACOENS 

A ND so again Coe went over the room. 

“ Lord ! ” he cried, “ I’m sick and tired 
of looking for a mousehole when the mousehole 
isn’t here! Not a baby mouse could get in or 
out of this box, — let alone a swashbuckler vil- 
lain, carrying a drugged unconscious man on his 
back!” 

For that was the way Coe visualized it, — he 
felt sure the abductor had entered by his con- 
founded secret entrance, had drugged or chloro- 
formed the sleeping Webb, and had returned the 
way he came, carrying his prey. 

For how else could it have been done? And 
anyway details didn’t matter. Even if Webb 
had been cajoled, — say by a tale of Elsie in im- 
mediate danger, — or her sudden illness, — even 
so, the secret entrance must have afforded the 
way in. 

And so the secret entrance had to be found, 
and Coe vowed he wouldn’t leave the room until 
he left through that entrance itself ! 

Patiently he went over the walls again, — the 
floor, the ceiling, noting unmarred decorations 
that precluded an opening of any sort. 

But this he soon finished and set himself to 
267 


268 The Disappearance of Kimball Webb 

work with his brain, thinking up some other type 
of entrance than any he had yet thought of. 

“ Suppose the whole side wall swings out/’ he 
thought. “ Suppose this wall between his house 
and the next — swings like a door, — no, that’s 
too wide, — suppose it swings on a pivot, — a 
central pivot, — oh, shucks, it couldn’t! Well, 
suppose the whole hall door came ofit in one 
piece, — frame and all. Suppose the frame is 
hinged on like a door, — then the bolted door 
wouldn’t matter. 

But this ingenious plan likewise failed to work, 
because the door wasn’t built that way. It was 
just an ordinary, regular made and regular hung 
door. 

The windows, too, failed to prove themselves 
freak windows of any sort but insisted on remain- 
ing the regulation, prosaic windows of commerce. 

The chimney was the only outlet left. 

Coe had peered up this so many times; poked 
up it with so many rods and poles ; invented and 
discarded so many clever schemes of how it might 
work ; that he felt no hope of further light from 
this source. 

He glared at the great fireplace with an 
air of righteous indignation. Why, — oh, why 
couldn’t it obligingly turn out to be some sort 
of a mechanism that would solve his puzzle. 

He scrutinized every inch of it. 

All he got for his trouble was the conviction 


Gilded Acorns 


269 


that certain parts of it had been recently touched 
up with gilding, — where the gilt iron filigree 
work decorated the edges of the wide opening. 
Moreover, the newer gilding was of a slightly 
different shade and lustre from the old. 

Of course, all this meant, that in their house- 
keeping zeal the Webbs or their servants had 
touched up some points of the oak leaf design 
that needed such renovation. 

They were here and there among the leaves and 
acorns that surrounded the opening of the fire- 
place. 

Grasping at any straw Coe went downstairs 
and made inquiry, learning that there had been 
no such gilding done. 

Coe went back and sat looking at the oak 
leaves. 

It seemed more conspicuous now, — indeed, he 
wondered how he could have missed seeing it 
sooner. 

Then he realized it was not really conspicuous. 
— it had doubtless been done last housecleaning 
time. 

But it was too bright for that theory. No y 
sir, that gilt had been applied to those scratched 
or marred leaves lately, and it had been done 
carefully and well. Done by somebody who 
knew how, — not a professional decorator, nec- 
essarily, but some one who knew about that sort 
of thing. 


270 The Disappearance of Kimball Webb 

Why, he used to do it himself, when he lived 
at home, — and he remembered even yet the way 
the gold paint got all over his fingers and the 
way it smelled of — 

Great Scott ! of bananas ! 

It did ! Every metal paint he had ever used, 

— gilt, bronze, copper, — all smelled of bananas, 

— acetate of amyl, — or something like that! 

Had Oscar’s reference to a banana odour 

proved valuable after all? 

And what could it mean? Why, the answer 
flashed across his eager brain, — it meant that 
the entrance, — the secret entrance, was some- 
how connected with that fireplace, — that the 
kidnapper had scratched the gilt leaves so badly 
when making his exit, that he had, to escape de- 
tection, to retouch the marred places! 

To work uninterruptedly Coe went and closed 
the room door and locked it. 

Then he sat down on the floor in front of the 
fireplace, and pondered. 

Not the chimney. No. He had long ago dis- 
carded that as a course of exit. But the fire- 
place, somehow. 

He peered and scrutinized; he fingered and 
pinched; he reasoned and cogitated; and at last 
his patient effort was rewarded by seeing the 
tiniest bit of rust or rubbed enamel that looked 
as if it might mean a hidden spring. 

And it did ! Careful manipulation, gentle 


Gilded Acorns 


271 


urging, without forcing made the fireplace give 
up its secret at last, and the whole grate with its 
back piece, all, swung round on a pivot into the 
house next door, and the fireplace that belonged 
in there swung into Coleman Coe’s astonished 
ken! 

The back of the fireplace, was a mere gate, — 
hung on a pivot, instead of on side hinges, and it 
swung as easily as if recently oiled, which it 
doubtless had been. 

Half dazed, Coe went through the opening, — 
a wide enough one, as the grates were exceedingly 
shallow, though very broad. 

He found himself in a pleasant bedroom, 
almost a duplicate of Webb’s own, as to size, 
shape and arrangement. 

The secret entrance was found at last! 

Eagerly Coe examined every part of it. The 
grates in the two rooms were alike, — the Webb 
one much cleaner and brighter than the other. 

Coe’s mind flew back to the story of the servant 
or somebody who smelled a newly kindled fire 
without reason therefor. 

It was, of course, because some hand had 
turned the revolving grates around when there 
was or had been a fire in one side and not in the 
other. 

“ Slick ! ” mused Coe, admiringly. “ Very 
slick!” 

And then, he remembered the Poltergeist ! 


272 The Disappearance of Kimball Webb 

What easier than to enter noiselessly, pull the 
bedclothes off the drowsy sleeper, and with a 
toss of the sheets over the victim’s face, escape 
again before discovery could be made? 

And this was the way Kimball Webb had been 
abducted. The kidnapper had come through the 
opening, had chloroformed Webb, and had car- 
ried him back with him. The grate opening was 
wide enough for that. Or, would be if the victim 
were, say, dragged through after the abductor. 

Oh, it was possible — possible? Why, it was 
what had been done ! The mystery of the disap- 
pearance was explained as to means. 

And the ghost that had been meant to frighten 
Coley Coe and had only roused his hilarity. 

That too, had been prepared and exhibited by 
the same clever Artful Dodger responsible for 
all the rest. 

Yes, the discovery explained everything. And, 
the rogue, having so marred the gilt acorns, that 
attention must necessarily be drawn to them, had 
crept back and touched them up with gold paint, 
— that smelled of bananas ! Thus overreaching 
his own cleverness! 

Good old Oscar ! To remember to mention the 
banana odour! 

Hesitatingly, Coe went through to the other 
house. 

He looked about the room. Unused, evidently. 


Gilded Acorns 273 

Dust on furniture, windows closed. Dry atmos- 
phere and blinds drawn. 

He switched on a light. That had not been 
cut off. 

Then he remembered the people were away and 
the house was closed. Well, one of them could 
have returned from his summer resort to carry 
out his fell purpose, and return again. Who 
were the people? 

Oh, yes, the Marsden St. Johns. Coe didn’t 
know one iota about them, but he proposed to 
find out. 

He tried to learn the character of its inhabi- 
tant from the room itself. 

But it seemed to him the abode of a lady. 
There were no clothes in the wardrobe, but a 
stray hairpin or two, and a scantily furnished 
workbasket were indicative of a departed fem- 
inine incumbent. 

Still, this didn’t make it probable that a lady 
had carried Webb off. Her room, in her absence, 
might well be used by another. 

Coe returned to Webb’s room, closed the fire- 
place carefully, unlocked the door and went down 
stairs. 

He went to Miss Webb and asked about the 
people next door. 

“A delightful family,” she said, “but very 
quiet. They are away much of the time. They 


274 The Disappearance of Kimball Webb 

leave very early for their summer place, and 
close the house the first of April. Then they re- 
turn about October. But before the holidays 
they go South, and after the holidays to Cali- 
fornia or somewhere else, so that, as a matter of 
fact, they’re almost never at home, — if you can 
even call it their home.” 

“ Who occupies the front room on the third 
floor? ” 

“ I think Miss Marsden, the old spinster aunt.” 

Coe nodded. He felt sure the kidnapper was 
not the one who belonged in the room with the 
turning fireplace. Of course, she knew nothing 
about it. Keally, it was mysterious enough still ! 

He told Miss Webb of his discovery. Nat- 
urally, she wanted to go up at once and see it. 

Calling Mrs. Webb in they all three went up 
and Coe showed his treasure trove. 

“ Well, of all things!” exclaimed Mrs. Webb; 
“ why, it’s big enough to crawl through ! ” 

“ To go through without crawling,” returned 
Coe, as, squatting, he fairly shuffled through on 
his feet. 

“And you think that’s the way Kim went 
out? ” asked Henrietta, as Coe returned. 

“ I know it’s the way, — but I think he was 
taken out unconscious.” 

“ Of course he was! ” cried Mrs. Webb. “ He 
never would go through into a strange house of 
his own accord.” 


Gilded Acorns 


275 


“Well, where is he?” asked Henrietta, as if, 
Coe, having done so much must now produce the 
missing man. 

“ I don’t know. But, Miss Webb, are you sure 
the Marsden St. Johns had nothing to do with 
the kidnapping? ” 

“ Of course they didn’t ! They were away, and 
aside from that the thing is preposterous ! Why, 
we scarcely know them, and moreover, they’re the 
quietest, most reserved people. That’s why we 
like them. 

“ Steal Kimball ! They’d be more likely to 
protect him! But I tell you they were not at 
home then.” 

“ Let me go through,” and Miss Webb looked 
at the open way. 

“ Certainly, the people are not home, — come 
along,” Coe agreed. 

“ Why, Henrietta,” cried her mother, “ I don’t 
think you ought to.” 

But curiosity triumphed, and soon all three 
stood in the room in the next door house. 

“What awful housekeeping!” Mrs. Webb 
cried, and her daughter’s expression of distaste 
spoke volumes. 

Coley Coe stood smiling to himself, at the way 
the aristocratic ladies descended to the vulgar 
depths of prying. They peered into cupboards 
and bureau drawers until he was positively 
shocked. 


276 The Disappearance of Kimball Webb 

But it brought about a strange result. 

“ Why, here’s the diamond pendant ! ” ex- 
claimed Henrietta. 

And sure enough, in a small drawer in the 
dresser was the very jewel case Mrs. Webb had 
last seen in her son’s hands the night before his 
mysterious disappearance. 

“ Impossible ! ” Coe cried. But it was, beyond 
all shadow of a doubt. The four magnificent 
stones, hung one below another, of perfectly grad- 
uated sizes, sparkled and scintillated as Hen- 
rietta let it dangle from her finger. 

“ I don’t understand,” said Mrs. Webb, ut- 
terly bewildered. 

“ Who could ! ” exclaimed Coe. “ I’m all at 
sea. Tell me more about those St. Johns. What 
sort of people can they be? ” 

“ Oh, they aren’t thieves, — they can’t be ! ” 
Miss Webb stared, wide-eyed, at the gems. 
“And yet, how else explain all this? Tell me, 
Mr. Coe, why did they take Kimball away? ” 

“ It looks to me as if whoever took him, did it 
to get the diamonds, at least partly for that.” 

“But the St. Johns are wealthy; they could 
buy these stones and never miss the money.” 

“ W611, let’s look further. Suppose somebody 
utilized this empty house of the St. Johns to — ” 

“ Oh, they don’t own the house,” Mrs. Webb 
interrupted, “ they rent it.” 

“ Millionaires, and rent a house ! ” 


Gilded Acorns 


277 


“ Yes, they’re in the city so little, you know. 
And it’s a most desirable house. Fenn Whiting 
owns it.” 

“ What? ” Coley Coe was stunned. 

“ Yes, it belongs to Mr. Whiting. It was left 
to him with several other houses by an uncle 
who died years ago.” 

“ Oh ! Whoopee! Wow! I beg your par- 
don, Mrs. Webb, but I must be allowed to yell! 
Fenn Whiting owns this house! My heavens 
and earth ! ” 

“ What is the matter? Are you crazy, Mr. 
Coe? Why does it so please you to learn that? ” 

“ Oh, because — because — excuse me, ladies, 
I must run away,— I’ve most important business. 
I’ll see you again later, — this evening, say, — 
and then I’ll tell you, — oh, a whole heap of 
things ! ” 

“ Wait a minute,” as he started back through 
the fireplace. “ Help us through, please ! ” 

“I beg pardon, Miss Webb! I guess I am 
crazy ! Come, give me your hand.” 

The trip was safely made by all three, and 
then Coe carefully closed the fireplace, and noted 
that it showed no crack or crevice where the 
pivot turned. 

“ Please don’t tell about this just at present,” 
he requested. “It’s all most important! We 
shall not only recover Mr. Webb very soon now 
but bring his abductor to justice and punishment, 


278 The Disappearance of Kimball Webb 

and also find Miss Powell, and oh, maybe it will 
all be in time for the wedding.” 

“ What shall I do with this? ” and Miss Webb 
held out the jewel box helplessly. 

“ Oh, — put it — haven’t you a safe? ” 

“ No.” 

“Well, lock it up in your room somewhere. 
Nobody knows you have it so there’s no danger 
of theft. Hide it securely.” 

And with a brief word of good-bye Coe ran 
downstairs and out of doors. 

First of all, he went to Fenn Whiting’s home. 
Only to be told that that gentleman was not at 
home. He was expected any minute, however, 
and Coe waited. This time he did not go up to 
Whiting’s rooms, but waited down in the lobby. 

But his wait was in vain. He grew restless, 
and began to cast about in his mind how to find 
the man he sought. He telephoned various clubs 
and homes of friends, and some business houses 
but not a word of information could he get con- 
cerning Mr. Whiting. 

At last, in hopeless despair he went away, 
after leaving word to telephone him as soon as 
Mr. Whiting came home. 

“ I do have the hardest stunts to do,” poor 
Coley Coe told himself. 

“ Now I’ve found my criminal and I can’t lay 
my hands on him. And something tells me I 
may never lay my eyes on him ! ” 


Gilded Acorns 


279 


He went to the Powells, for he must tell them 
that he had a hope at least of recovering Elsie 
before long. Yet, had he? 

However, he told the Powells the whole story 
of what he had found in the way of a secret en- 
trance. 

“ I should think it was secret ! ” Gerty ex- 
claimed. “ I don’t see how you were clever 
enough to find it ! ” 

“ I was stupid not to find it sooner,” Coe be- 
wailed. 

And then he told his further discoveries. Al- 
lison was present, and with the two Powell ladies 
made a most interested audience. 

Mrs. Powell was in a nervous and broken down 
state, but she rallied perceptibly at Coe’s hints 
of good news. 

“ You see,” he told them, “ Mrs. Seaman’s tip 
about the toothpick paper put me on a scent, I 
went to Courtney’s to see if I could trace any- 
thing, and by sheer luck, Miss Lloyd, — bless her ! 
told me that Fenn Whiting frequently, or at 
least, occasionally, took her there.” 

“ Why, I thought Fenn looked higher than 
that ! ” sniffed Gerty. 

“ Some men look high and low by turns,” com- 
mented Joe. 

“ Well, anyhow,” Coley went on, “ I took her 
tip for what it was worth. Then she also in- 
formed me that Whiting’s valet, named Bass, 


280 The Disappearance of Kimball Webb 

possessed just such gold filled teeth as Miss Elsie 
described, and as the nurse mentioned in con- 
nection with the man that brought her that fake 
message.” 

“ Do explain clearly,” begged Mrs. Powell, 
u I’m getting all mixed up ! ” 

“ This is how I dope it out,” Coley said, slowly. 
“ Whiting is the master villain. He has all the 
earmarks of a depraved, criminal type.” 

“ Why, I never thought so,” Gerty said. 

“ I saw it,” said Allison. “ His jaw and the 
shape of his head gave it away.” 

“ Yes, and his ears. Those points at the top, — 
and his steely grey eyes. That colour marks the 
sly, even murderous type.” 

“ Oh, I never dreamed Fenn was so bad ! ” 
Gerty almost cried. 

“ Well, he is,” Coe declared. “ Now, after 
Lulie Lloyd’s tip, I went to Whiting’s rooms, and 
I found a letter from somebody recommending a 
safe man for him to employ. 

“ At first I thought this meant a reliable man, 
but it turned out it meant a man who built 
safes ! To make a long story short, Whiting en- 
gaged that man to build that fireplace door some 
time when his tenants were away, and, of course 
when the Webbs were away also. He owned the 
house, he could do it, and too, he doubtless paid 
the fellow well to do it, and keep quiet about it. 


Gilded Acorns 


281 


For the safe builder denied all knowledge of 
Whiting. Then, I found that the diamonds were 
hidden in that house, — ” 

“ Elsie’s diamonds? ” Gerty gasped. 

“ Yes, put there by Whiting of course, after he 
stole them from Webb that night. A perfect 
hiding-place ! ” 

“ Where is Kimball? ” 

“ That’s the point of the whole thing. As I 
reconstruct it all, Whiting sneaked into the room 
that night soon after Webb went to bed, chloro- 
formed him, and then dragged or carried or 
shoved him through into the next house. He 
must have taken his clothes along and put them 
on the unconscious man. You see, he had that 
brute of a man with the gold teeth, his own man, 
to help him.” 

“ How do you know? ” Allison’s eyes gleamed 
with interest. 

“ I don’t know, but it must have been that way. 
Then, he and his precious helper, managed some- 
how to get Webb away and carried him off, doubt- 
less in Whiting’s own car, to some place of con- 
cealment where he still is.” 

a And stole the diamonds too ! ” 

“Yes; and has since stolen Elsie too, — and, 
worst of all, has now disappeared himself!” 

“ Whiting stolen?” Allison’s eyes nearly 
popped out of his head. 


282 The Disappearance of Kimball Webb 

“No; he is the thief, not a victim. He has 
those two people hidden and he has now hidden 
himself.” 

“ Why? What for? ” Mrs. Powell was unable 
to comprehend. 

“ This, I think. He wanted to marry Elsie, — 
he really loves her, — but even more he loved the 
fortune she would get. He planned to remove 
Webb and step into his shoes. The rest is all 
consequent on that determination. He took the 
diamonds because they were there in Webb’s 
room, and Whiting’s predatory instinct couldn’t 
resist the temptation. He hid Webb securely, — 
time has proved how very securely, — and then he 
tried every way to win Elsie.” 

“ But he always said he didn’t want her for- 
tune,” Gerty interrupted. “ He said he’d just 
as lief marry her the day after her birthday as 
the day before.” 

“ He said that, because he knew it was a safe 
bet if the girl would marry him at all, she’d se- 
cure the fortune too. If she had agreed to marry 
him the day after her birthday, he would have 
changed his schemes a bit. So, as he couldn’t 
get Elsie to marry him, — I happen to know how 
hard he tried,— he determined she shouldn’t 
marry at all, and kidnapped her. I’m sure he 
has her somewhere where he can use every influ- 
ence still, to make her consent.” 


Gilded Acorns 288 

<€ And was he at the bottom of the ransom 
scheme? ” a$ked Joe. 

“ Sure he was. His gold toothed tool trapped 
Elsie, and they secured the fifty thousand dol- 
lars without a bit of trouble. He never meant 
to return Webb, — or, if he did, he changed his 
mind when he found how easily he could get cash 
from Elsie. Oh, you’ve no idea of the depths of 
this man’s baseness ! ” 

“ And where is he now?” Allison half rose, 
as if he couldn’t longer keep himself from meting 
out punishment to this prince of malefactors. 

“ That’s it,” and Coe’s bright face clouded. 
“I’ve not the slightest idea! Nor do I see a 
glimmer of light toward finding out. He has 
hidden Webb and hidden Elsie so thoroughly, he 
can, of course, conceal himself with equal surety. 
I don’t know where to look for him ! ” 

“ But let’s look all the same ! ” cried Allison, 
boyish in his haste. 


CHAPTER XVIII 


ELSIE’S BIRTHDAY 

I T was the twenty -ninth of June. 

Elsie Powell had been nearly a week in 
confinement, under the care and at the mercy of 
the woman she called Mrs. Pike, but who was in 
reality the wife of Bass, the valet and general 
factotum of Fenn Whiting. 

When Elsie had asked his name he had said 
Pike, on the spur of the moment, and Pike he * 
had remained to her. 

Elsie was not at all uncomfortably housed. 
She had comforts if not luxuries. She was al- 
lowed to go in the several rooms of the basement 
of the house, which were fitted up with more elab- 
orate appointments than most basement floors 
are. Mrs. Pike, as Elsie knew her, was kind 
enough to the girl, except when she took it upon 
herself to advise her. This Elsie invariably re- 
sented, and there was war. For Elsie had a 
temper of her own, and when it was roused it 
was by no means inconsiderable. 

There was a door at the foot of the basement 
stairs. This was always locked. From the time 
when Elsie had heard that shout the first night 
of her arrival, that door had never again been 
opened. 


284 


285 


Elsie’s Birthday 

Elsie was positive that it had been Kimball’s 
voice, but the two Pikes denied it, and she 
thought she might be mistaken. 

Every afternoon at four o’clock, Fenn Whit- 
ing came to talk with Elsie and urge her to marry 
him. But now, knowing that it was he who had 
brought her where she was, she vowed she would 
stay there till she died, rather than marry him 1 
So angry did she become at mere mention of it, 
that she flew into passionate rage, and looked 
so wondrously beautiful with flaming cheeks and 
flashing eyes that Whiting was more infatuated 
than ever. 

The days went by somehow. By turns, Elsie 
stormed, sulked, wept, coaxed and plead with 
her keeper, the imperturbable Mrs. Pike, but all 
to no purpose. The woman was adamant. She 
had been inclined to listen to Elsie’s suggestion 
of higher pay than they had been promised, but 
her husband had forbidden her any such ideas. 
And so the days went by, and Elsie wondered 
what would finally become of her. 

And so came the twenty-ninth, the day before 
her birthday. Elsie resolved to make a final des- 
perate effort with Mrs. Pike. She did, and she 
had the satisfaction of seeing that the woman 
was interested at least. 

“ If you’ll let me out,” Elsie begged her, “ I’ll 
see to it that you shall never be blamed or pun- 
ished in any way for what you have done, I’ll give 


286 The Disappearance of Kimball Webb 

you ten thousand dollars and I’ll find you a 
pleasant home somewhere in the country, — 
which I know T you want.” 

It was the mention of a home in the country 
that touched the woman most deeply, and for a 
moment she wavered. But even as she began 
to speak, Fenn Whiting arrived and the conver- 
sation was stopped. 

“ Now, Elsie,” Whiting said, “ here’s your last 
chance to be sensible. I’m nearly at the end of 
my rope, but so are you. If you’re not married 
by tomorrow, — that’s your birthday, — you lose 
all that money. And I tell you plainly, — I 
swear to you, you shall not leave this house until 
after your birthday, unless you marry me first. 
You’ve no chance at all, you see, for nobody 
knows where you are, — you don’t know, your- 
self! But here you are and here you stay, un- 
less you agree to my wish. Remember your 
mother and sister, and remember your sister’s 
two little kiddies. Will you doom those innocent 
children to a life of poverty, when you could so 
easily make them happy and comfortable for life? 
And I’m not a bad sort, Elsie. I’ll let you have 
your own way in everything. What I’ve done, 
I’ve done for love of you. Not the money, you 
know I don’t care for that, but my devotion to 
you is unbounded. Come, Elsie, dearest, say 
yes.” 

“ I say No ! ” 


287 


Elsie’s Birthday 

“ Think of your mother. The loss of you and 
the loss of the fortune both, may kill her. Then 
you would be her murderer ! ” 

“ Hush ! ” and Elsie clapped her hands over 
her ears. 

“ I won’t hush. I want you to see what you’re 
doing! Yes, you may be the death of your poor 
invalid mother. You will surely spoil the lives 
of Gerty and her dear little ones, and what do 
you gain by it? ” 

“ Did you do away with Kimball Webb?” 

“ I most certainly did not. I know nothing of 
him or his fate ; but you must see that he left you 
willingly, — deserted you, and on the very eve 
of your wedding.” 

“ I don’t believe it ! ” but Elsie’s tortured soul 
could bear no more and she fell in a dead faint. 

Whiting was a little scared, and he called Mrs. 
Pike quickly. 

“ Poor lamb,” she said, gathering the uncon- 
scious girl in her arms. In the days together 
she had learned to love Elsie, and she turned on 
Whiting. “ Go, you ! How dare you torment 
the darling so ! Away with you, you shall trou- 
ble her no more tonight.” 

Whiting went away, and Mrs. Pike helped the 
sick girl to bed. 

“ There now, dearie, try to rest and forget your 
troubles,” she crooned over her, with real affec- 
tion. 


288 The Disappearance of Kimball Webb 

“ I will,” Elsie whispered to her, “ if you’ll 
help me out. Can’t you let me get away to- 
night? ” 

“ Oh, no, I wish I might, — but I daren’t, — I 
daren’t ! ” 

“ Tell me this, then. Isn’t Mr. Webb in this 
house? ” 

“ Hush, hush, now, — don’t say such things.” 

" But isn’t he? ” 

“ I can’t tell you, — I daren’t.” 

“ I am answered ! ” cried Elsie, triumphantly. 
“ I know he is ! Oh, what a refinement of cruelty. 
Are you a human being, that you countenance 
such fiendish cruelty? Please, — please, dear, 
good Mrs. Pike, let me get away! You needn’t 
do anything. Just let me steal your key when 
you’re not looking — ” 

“ There now, there now, go to sleep, my girl. 
I can’t do a thing for you and you know it! If 
I could, I’d have done it long ago.” 

“ I believe you would,” and Elsie sobbed her- 
self into a troubled sleep. 

The next day was her birthday. 

She awoke early, and lay, with a leaden heart, 
but with an alert brain, trying to think of some 
plan of escape. She was sure if she could break 
her prison doors, she could get help and rescue 
Kimball Webb, who, she felt certain, was con- 
fined in the upper part of the same house. 


289 


Elsie’s Birthday 

Desperate, she rose early, and looked about. 
Her tiny bedroom, though clean and airy, was 
protected by the iron barred windows so often 
seen in basements, and the one door was locked 
at night by Mrs. Pike. 

There was no chance, and yet she would not 
give up. She wrote on a bit of paper, her home 
address, and wrote beneath it, “ Take this paper 
to the house, and tell them the number of this 
house, and they will give you ten dollars.” 

This paper she folded small and secreted in her 
waist. She had a last, a forlorn hope, but she 
meant to try it. 

She manoeuvred very carefully to be about 
when the milk man came, and with what was al- 
most sleight of hand she did manage to tuck the 
paper into his big red hand almost under the very 
nose of Mrs. Pike. 

The man gave her a sharp glance and closed 
his fingers on the paper, going off without a word. 

“ What you doing up so early? ” asked Mrs. 
Pike, and Elsie said, “ I couldn’t sleep so I got 
up.” Then she quickly changed the subject and 
managed to divert the woman by her chatter. 

The milkman, not at all averse to getting an 
extra ten dollars, concluded to get to the address 
so strangely given to him, as soon as he had fin- 
ished his morning rounds. It never occurred to 
his limited imagination that he could do other- 
wise than continue his daily routine. 


290 The Disappearance of Kimball Webb 

So it was nearly noon when he arrived at the 
Powell home. 

The wooden-faced doorman advised the caller 
to go round to the tradesman’s entrance, and the 
milkman expressed his entire willingness to do 
so. 

“ But,” he said, “ these people are going to 
be mighty glad to see me ! I bring them a mes- 
sage from a young girl — ” 

“ What ! ” for the doorman knew the principal 
facts of the tragedy in one apartment of the big 
house. “ Here, you, go right up. Take that ele- 
vator ! ” 

And so it happened that the uncouth and un- 
kempt person went up in the shining and lux- 
urious elevator, and was eagerly shown by the 
elevator man to the Powell door. 

“ I want to see the head of the house,” he an- 
nounced, as he stepped inside the hall. 

“ I’ll do,” said Coley Coe, on the alert for any- 
thing new or strange. 

“ Well, sir, here’s a note.” 

Coe read the few scribbled words, recognized 
Elsie’s writing and gave a low, but very trium- 
phant shout. 

“ Oh, Gerty, Mrs. Powell, Joe, — everybody, — 
listen here ! ” 

Coe capered round like a happy child, he 
grasped Gerty round the shoulders, he grabbed 
Mrs. Powell’s hand, he shook his queer forelock 


291 


Elsie’s Birthday 

until he looked like a shaggy dog, and then he 
read out the words on the paper. 

“Do I get my ten?” asked the milkman, 
stolidly. 

“ You do ! ” shouted Coe. “ You get twenty, — * 
and here it is ! ” 

Murmuring his astonished thanks, the man dis- 
appeared. 

“ Hold on ! ” Coe yelled, “ wait a minute, you ! 
Where’s this house? Where’d you get this pa- 
per? ” 

The man told him the number, a fairly high 
number, on Madison Avenue. 

“ Good gracious, in a classy section ! Whose 
house is it, my man ? ” 

“ It’s Mr. James Van Winkle’s house, but it’s 
closed for the summer, — the folks are away.” 

“ Closed ! ” 

“ Yes, but there’s a coupla caretakers there, 
and they keep things going. And, between you 
and me, sir, I think there’s something wrong.” 

“ If this young lady’s there, it’s something very 
wrong.” 

“ She is, sir, and to my way of thinking, she’s 
kept there against her will.” 

“ You bet she is ! But she won’t be there long ! 
Thank you, my man, — here’s another five. It’s 
worth it. Now, good morning! ” 

The milkman left and Coe made ready to de- 
part also. 


292 The Disappearance of Kimball Webb 

“ You’d better come with me, Joe,” he said; 
“ and I think Fll be on the safe side and take a 
brace of policemen. I’m looking for trouble. 
Hold on, — I want a word alone with Mrs. 
Powell, — just a minute.” 

And then, Coe was ready and he and Allison 
went off. 

“ I ? ll let you know as soon as possible, Gerty,” 
Coe called back, and the two hurried on. 

It took a little time to gather up two police- 
men and get over to the Madison Avenue house, 
but they arrived before two o’clock. 

The house was boarded up after the manner of 
houses vacated for the summer, and repeated 
pulls at the bell brought no response. 

“ Nothing doing,” opined a policeman. “ Guess 
you people were stung.” 

“ I guess we weren’t! ” declared Coe. “ Break 
in. I’ll take all responsibility.” 

“Try the basement door,” suggest'd Allison; 
“ that’s where the milkman would see the care- 
takers, you know.” 

Down they trooped and recommenced their 
knocking there. 

“ I’m scared they’ll escape at the back,” warned 
Coe. “ One of you chaps scoot around there.” 

By this time, though there was no response 
to their summons, they heard faint sounds of a 
commotion inside the house. 

And at last a girl’s shriek rose high, though 


293 


Elsie’s Birthday 

muffled at once by interception of some sort. 

“ That’s Elsie ! ” whispered Coe, not so much 
from recognition of the voice as from an intui- 
tion of the facts. 

At sound of the shriek, the policeman burst 
in the door, and they rushed in. Nobody was in 
sight, but they went on to the rear room, and 
found there Elsie and Fenn Whiting. 

The two caretakers had managed to hide them- 
selves, but small attention was paid to that. 

It was quite evident from the girl’s trembling, 
nerve-racked condition that Whiting had been 
frightening her with some terrible threat, and 
his brutal, rage-drawn countenance corroborated 
this. 

“ Drop that lady’s arm,” the brawny bluecoat 
ordered, and Whiting turned in startled surprise 
and fury. 

“ What do you want here? ” he bluffed. 
“ This is my house, — get out ! ” 

“ Not so fast, Whiting,” said Coley Coe, as 
Elsie flew to Joe Allison’s protecting arms. 

“ Arrest him,” Coe went on. “ On the charge 
of abduction and theft and housebreaking, and 
— oh, lots of other things! Anything to say, 
Whiting? ” 

“ No, except that you’ll pay for this. I tell 
you this is my house and you’ve no right here ! ” 

“ Stuff and nonsense ! ” commented Coe. 
* But how do you make out it’s your house? ” 


294 The Disappearance of Kimball Webb 


“ I’ve rented it, — sublet it from the owners — ” 

“ Who are away for the summer ! Oh, yes — 
I see! I especially see ! And, — ahem, — just 
when did you take the house over? ” 

“ Long ago, I’ve had it for months. I tell you 
it’s mine ! ” 

“ Sure it is ! I don’t dispute you. And you 
rented it before the sixth of April, didn’t you? 
And you’ve used it ever since as a — ” 

“ Yes, Coley, he has ! ” Elsie cried out. “ Kim- 
ball is upstairs, — I know he is ! Oh, find him, — 
find him quick ! ” 

The second policeman was now present, and 
he and Allison ran upstairs by leaps and bounds, 
leaving Coe and the other to attend to Whiting. 

Elsie was quite herself again, hope and glad- 
ness having restored her like magic. She was for 
running after the man, but Coe said, “ Wait, El- 
sie, they’ll soon be back, — you stay here, — ” for 
he was all uncertain as to what the men might 
discover. 

On the two rushed, finding no one in the rooms 
on the first or second floor. On, up to the third 
floor, and there, from a closed room they heard 
faint sounds. 

Smashing the light door in, they found Kim- 
ball Webb. 

Allison had never seen the man before, nor had 
the policeman, but they knew him from his photo- 
graphs, and they gasped at his condition. Ema- 


295 


Elsie’s Birthday 

dated, pale, with a haunted look in his big, dark 
eyes, the man seemed half crazed. But at sight 
of them he revived instantly. “ Police ! he 
cried, “ oh, thank Heaven ! ” He mumbled unin- 
telligibly, because of a diabolically clever gag 
which impeded his speech, while it allowed him 
to breathe and eat. 

This was removed quickly, and the restored 
man, cried imploringly, “ Elsie? ” 

“ She’s all right,” said Allison, cheerily, and 
Webb smiled happily, then, immediately his face 
darkened and he said, “ Whiting? ” 

“ Safe in custody, sir,” the policeman assured 
him, staring as if he could scarce believe that the 
long lost man was really found. 

“ Let me at him ! ” and Webb’s look of right- 
eous revenge was something so awful that the 
other two stared in awe. 

“ Tell me everything, quick,” Webb went on, 
for he was rapidly regaining his poise, strength 
and activity. “ Where is Elsie? Where is Whit- 
ing? Oh, men, I’ve been here an eternity! ” 

“ You have ! ” cried Joe. “ I say, have you 
been here all the time? ” 

“ Yes, every day, — every hour of it ! I 
thought I’d die, — I wanted to, — but I wanted to 
live to give Whiting his ! ” 

“ And for Elsie’s sake,” put in Joe, to divert 
Webb’s thoughts from the more dangerous chan- 
nel. 


296 The Disappearance of Kimball Webb 

“ Yes, Elsie! Where is she? Can I see her 
now? ” 

“ I don’t see why not,” said Allison, and the 
other man nodded as Joe ran to the stairs and 
called down over the banister. 

At the sound, Elsie came flying upstairs, and 
the men, unable to hold Webb back, followed him 
as he descended one flight to meet her. 

They met in the second floor hall, and- clasped 
in each others’ arms were so silent in their shock 
of joy that the others went rapidly downstairs 
and left them to themselves. 

“ Oh, Kimball, I knew I’d get you back,” Elsie 
kept repeating, “ I knew I would ! ” 

“ I didn’t, dearest, I didn’t dare even hope for 
it. I’ve been so helpless, — gagged always, lest 
I attract attention from outside and bound much 
of the time, lest I break out, somehow.” 

“ And you couldn’t manage an escape? ” 

“ Not possible. Bass, that’s Whiting’s 
man, — ” 

“ Mr. Pike? ” 

“No, Bass is his name. And his wife’s here, 
too. They’ve looked after me with decency, but 
they were absolutely unapproachable as to brib- 
ery.” 

“ I know it,” and Elsie smiled ruefully. “ Oh, 
Kim, never mind, now, dearest, I’ve got you at 
last! Did they force you to write that note to 
me? ” 


297 


Elsie’s Birthday 

“ Yes, at the point of a pistol.” 

She wept softly in his arms, and he held her 
close, forgetting all his misery in his present 
joy. 

“ How did he get me?” he said, presently. 
“ How did Whiting pull it off ? ” 

“ Oh, he had a contrivance in the fireplace by 
which he could get into your room, and he car- 
ried you off, drugged, I suppose — ” 

“ Yes; I remember the sweetish smell of chloro- 
form and that’s the last I knew.” 

“ Well, never mind. You can hear all these 
details some other time.” 

“ After we’re married, — you will marry 
me, won’t you, Elsie, — dearest ! you, — you — 
haven’t married anybody else, have you? ” 
“No!” she cried, frightened at the grasp on 
her arm. But her assurance restored his poise. 

“ Forgive me, dear. I’m weak from being 
housed and tortured so long. Come, can we go 
away from this dreadful place? ” 

“ Yes, we will. And I will marry you, of 
course. Haven’t I waited for you? But, we 
can’t get the money, Kim, it’s too late. Today’s 
my birthday, and the time is up.” 

“ Never mind, dear heart. I’ll make money 
enough for us. Dop’t worry. I’ve finished my 
play since I’ve been here, — and it’s a corker ! I 
had to work on it to keep from losing my mind. 
I almost did, anyway. But they let me have 


298 The Disappearance of Kimball Webb 

paper and pencil, and I finished the thing some 
time ago. Oh, Elsie, it has been the most un- 
utterable hell ! ” 

“ Yes, dearest, but I ? ll make a Heaven for you 
that will make you forget it all.” 

“ You shall, my beloved. I’ve forgotten it al- 
ready ! The sight of your dear face has blotted 
it all out.” 

“ You’re awfully thin, Kim, but otherwise you 
look just the same.” 

“ Good ! I feared I’d be but a small remnant 
of my former beauty! Come on, girl, darling; 
let’s go home. Lord, I don’t know a thing that’s 
going on, — and I don’t much care. I’ve got you, 
— and some day I shall have a go at Whiting, — 
but I’m too happy now to tackle him. Is he 
about? ” 

“ He is indeed ! Very much about. Here 
comes Coley Coe.” 

“ Who’s he?” 

And then, at Elsie’s introduction, the two men 
shook hands. 

“ I’ve hunted for you long enough,” — said Coe, 
— “ I’m right down glad to see you ! ” 

“ And I’m glad to see any one who was instru- 
mental in bringing about my rescue ! ” 

“ Miss Powell did that,” Coe said ; “ she 
cleverly corralled a milkman and made him serve 
her ends ! ” 

“ But Coley did lots, — oh, lots ! ” Elsie cried, 


299 


Elsie’s Birthday 

her eyes sparkling with appreciation. “ You’ll 
adore him after you know him better, Kim! I 
do! ” 

Webb smiled happily at his lovely fiancee , and 
said, “ I see I must marry you out of hand, to be 
sure of you! When can we pick up our broken 
threads? ” 

“ Pretty soon,” Elsie promised him. “ There’s 
no special hurry for a day or two,” she added, 
“ for it’s just too late to get the fortune, — and 
that must go to Joe.” 

“ Never mind,” Webb reiterated. “ But I 
won’t wait very long for you, I can tell you 
that! ” 

“ Want to see Whiting? ” Coley Coe asked of 
Webb. 

“ I do indeed ! But you’d better hold me ! ” 

“ Stay here, I’ll have him fetched up.” 

And so it was in the parlour of the Madison 
Avenue mansion that the master criminal and his 
principal victim met. 

Whiting was blustering, — bragging. Sub- 
dued at first by the defeat that had so suddenly 
overwhelmed him, he later became cocky and in- 
sufferable. 

“ Hello, Webb,” he jeered. “ You’re on top at 
last, — but I led you a dance ! And I achieved 
my purpose, too! You won’t marry a great 
heiress after all ! You’ve lost your chance ! ” 

“ Hush ! ” and Webb took a step toward him, 


300 The Disappearance of Kimball Webb 

though warily watched by the two policemen. 

“ Let him come, I’m not afraid of him/’ blus- 
tered Whiting. 

“No, you coward,” Webb said, “you are not 
afraid of a man weakened by months of confine- 
ment, and suffering from a lamed knee ! You are 
bravery itself ! And furthermore, you are be- 
neath even my scorn ! I refuse to tell you what 
I feel for you. I scorn to speak to you at all. 
Let the police deal with you and all such as 
you ! ” 

The repressed wrath, the scathing tones, the 
loathing evident in Webb’s glance made even the 
depraved Whiting shrivel as if seared with a hot 
iron. He said nothing and his cocksure manner 
fell from him, leaving him limp with futile anger. 

“ You — you — •” he muttered, but could find 
no words. 

“ Come, Elsie,” said Webb, without a further 
glance at Whiting ; “ may we go, officer? ” 

“ Yes, Mr. Webb, and all joy go with you.” 

Whiting found his voice, and called out, 
“ Small joy to marry a poor girl when you hoped 
for a fortune ! ” 

Webb’s face flushed darkly, and but for Elsie’s 
restraining hand he would have turned on his 
tormentor. 

“ And you must hand it to me for cleverness ! ” 
Whiting went on. “ I had that connection be- 
tween the houses made four years ago. I meant 


301 


Elsie’s Birthday 

to get yon sooner or later, you stuck-up aristo- 
crat. You won’t be quite so proud when you 
find you’ve married a penniless bride. Oh, yes, 
I had the thing built that I might go in and kill 
you! Yes, that’s what I planned to do, — kill 
you! Then, I saw better game than that! I 
kidnapped you, meaning to marry the girl and 
get all that money myself ! ” 

A chattering laugh broke from the speaker,, 
and Elsie shuddered. Without doubt the wicked 
brain had snapped its tension and Whiting was 
demented ! 

But he wasn’t, — except momentarily. 

“ Or,” he resumed, “ I thought I’d scare you 
to death with ghosts and things, — but I didn’t — 
I waited and I had the best scheme after all, — 
it all worked perfectly, — only scratched the gilt 
so badly, had to regild it — just a little — just 
a little — ” he babbled on like a veritable idiot, 
and fearing lest his next phase might be one of 
violence the policeman urged Webb and Elsie to 
go at once. 

Coe and Allison went too, for they all wanted 
to be at the jubilee of reunion. 

“And,” said Coe, as they were seated in a 
swiftly rolling taxi, “ Friend Whiting is ’wav off 
about the fortune, Elsie. For, I chance to know 
the will is worded, ‘ married before you are 
twenty-four years old’; nothing is said about 
marrying before your birthday. Just before I 


302 The Disappearance of Kimball Webb 

started I asked your mother what hour you were 
born, and she said, late in the evening, — after ten 
o’clock! As it isn’t five yet, you’ve ample time 
to set your wedding bells ringing ! ” 

“ Yes,” said Joe Allison, his fine face lighted 
up with honest joy. “ Yes, Elsie, that’s so, — and 
I congratulate you from the bottom of my heart ! 
I’ll probably feel mighty different later on, but 
now I’m so keyed up with excitement and noble 
generosity, that for today, at least, I can say I’m 
glad you’ve got the money, — glad for you, I 
mean.” 

Elsie couldn’t help smiling at his qualified joy 
over her prospects, and she was a little excited 
herself. 

“ Are you sure, Coley? ” she asked; “ then we 
must be married at once. Will you have me, 
Kim?” 

“ For richer for poorer,” he murmured, and El- 
sie, laughing, went on making plans. “ You’re 
only the bridegroom, anyway,” she said, “ and 
you haven’t a word to say. Joe, don’t cry, dear, 
I’ll give you a goodly slice of that old money. 
I’ll give you a hundred thousand dollars, anyway, 
and maybe more.” 

a Lord ! Elsie, that’s enough ! I wouldn’t wish 
any more than that! Now I’m truly happy, all 
over ! ” and his round young face beamed joy- 
ously. 

“ We’re ’most home,” went on the happy bride 


303 


Elsie’s Birthday 

to be. “ We’ll telephone everybody we want to, 
and we’ll be married, — let me see, — well, we’ll 
be married as soon as I get things ready enough ! 
I sha’n’t trust you out of my sight, Kim, you stay 
right at our house, and somebody can bring you 
clothes from home, and all that.” 

Elsie had her way, she called the Webb ladies 
over first, and then arranged all sorts of things 
to make a pretty wedding, and the ceremony took 
place in ample time to make her the inheritor of 
the fortune left by her eccentric aunt, and later 
on, Allison received his promised portion. 

Coe earned the fifty thousand dollars reward, 
for his efforts were at the bottom of the final 
discoveries. 

Elsie even remembered the elevator girl and 
all others who had helped her, and the use of 
the money proved a source of genuine satisfac- 
tion to the newly married pair, as well as to the 
mother and sister of the bride. 

Both Joe Allison and Coley Coe insisted on 
being best man, and were allowed to share that 
honour. 

The wedding was a happy one, for every one 
put aside all present thought of the base and 
despicable man who had tried so hard to prevent 
it. He received his due reward in good time, 
but Elsie Webb and her husband refused ever to 
hear his name mentioned. 

The beautiful diamond pendant, — the gift of 


304 The Disappearance of Kimball Webb 

the bridegroom, flashed at the bride’s fair throat, 
and there was no discord or jangling of the merry 
marriage bells. 


THE END 


OCT -4 1945 











